Story Archives 2002

by Joe B.

Male Complexity Pt. 2

I left off at women not listening to men as we are always and for good reason accused of not listening to women.

How more stress, smoking, cancer, and or job burnout or nervous breakdowns plus a few deaths forced women to being hearing what men said even if we said it in our limited seemingly eternal cave man ways.

But in "Nature" and USA Today Women’s assured supposed superior sex may not have crumbled it does sport hairline cracks.

Why males exist?

The Human Genome Project has sequenced all genes on the Y chromosome, providing the first clear view of the male genetic landscape.

Excerpt USA TODAY’s: Study makes sense of Y chromosomes by Tim Friend, June 18, 2003 By.

I’ve paraphrased some of his words, the point men are as complex if not more than women its was just hidden deeper in men’s genes, we are as complex as women.

Not forgetting giving birth will always be their ace unless men figure they too can give birth and withstand the pain.

[It has been said men have lower pain thresholds than women].I don’t know if it’s a fact but if so I’ll be in line when both sexes can switch each genes for the best of each others advantages and none of the worst like living shorter, cardiac arrest, osteoporosis, testosterone/estrogen driven rages, diseases from male or female genes, or female pattern balding.

I’m wondering if men enable themselves to do that then does meaning women changes if that ultimate power was a shared ability?

Girls, Women, Ladies, you know guys have minute estrogen in them as gals have minute amounts of testosterone in you.

The real men don’t eat - - you know the rest goes out the window if tough guys like Jar Heads (Marines, Navy Seals, MI 5-6, OSI-NSA or other military or quasi military/covert black ops.

The type folks who handle mental physical stress – eat it, churn it, spit it out like candy.

Women, I ask you if it was couched as secret, reckless, or uniquely deadly dangerous venture to these shadowy grey men who are sworn to secrecy to live and died as part of their solemn fealty oath.

Because it is dangerous every time a woman gives birth and routine just means women around the globe are having babies some stillborn, premature, or mentally, physically, or genetically challenged.

You know few men would take this particular mission but a few would and those few are the breed would save our race.

Besides think of the bragging rights.

"Yeah, had a kid; pain like holy hell, don’t ever tell me women are wimps, weak, or any of that bullcake."

After that ordinary guys will do it and before you know the lowest 90 pound could do and women wouldn’t could never see themselves as having any advantage of being female because their biggest trump card birth can be accomplished by any man.

I don’t know how women would react probably "Kill the slut-male and what in his belly, bash their scrotum in so they can’t reproduce."

I can see women overreacting or saying "This is great for the race we can survive anything now."

It may sound like fantasy so was every invention in the last century or so, we’re human and for us if the mind can conceive it can be achieved it may take a little more time; ah, but do we have enough time? End of Pt.2

Donations C/0 Poor Magazine


1448 Pine Street #205

San Francisco, CA 94103

by Joe B.

Again I was reading a long article last week about Neo-Nazis and Argentina as a kind of virtual hub.

Yes, it was in the Chronicle that’s why I’m not a journalist.

I don't read four or five newspapers everyday.

I’m not filling up my noggin with current, printed sound bites that’ll be out of date in days, weeks or years then review 'em again to update so it can again become obsolete.

The way our human brain’s can hold and retain vast quantities of information is astounding but certain kinds of stuff like news and magazine items is not what my brain will be storing.

In Buenos Aires Argentina where the economy has slumped it seems hate groups have gathered there because of increasing pressure to cease their on-line activities.

I won’t name these groups.

By now between the net and word of mouth their sites are known.

I have ideas on how to really piss off not only New-Nazis but every home grown and foreign hate mongers everywhere.

It’s really simple, all these hate groups have problems with people unlike them.

This is where true A grade Hackers both independent and those employed by peace and freedom loving people's can share what knowledge they wish to frustrate, thwart haters at every turn here’s how or at least a few ideas of how.

First find, book mark the sites, browse through them and make hard copies, then after you picked a site or two email them to other freedom loving thinkers like yourself.

Begin a slow and endless campaign of relentless harassment.

One last question – What is their (haters) main problem?

Answer–Anyone that isn't them, doesn’t live up to their view of superiority.

All we need do to really make these A-holes have bad days, weeks, months, or years is place diametrically opposed views on their sites.

I mean from every scientifically racist arguments they place as we place 5 to 10 or 50 true answers.

Truth is anathema to them it throws them off kilter.

Place really graphic depictions of Yellow, Brown, Red, Black, White, and Mixed raced people doing what humans do naturally and often, show kids the same as above with different kinds of parents two men, two women, or one parent and extended family groups.

Get the idea folks?

They’re dirt, filth, and ugliness on the web can be answered not banned all banning does is keep it bubbling underground.

There would naturally lots of sexually graphic material about adults, middle aged couples and seniors of different faiths and cultures getting their grove on all over the globe while the hate monger groups shrinks in size and demographics.

Yes, we must be tasteful and be careful of using age appropriate couples of ever youthful elders of many hues with their children and their children and so on.
I do believe the solution to the hate groups on the web it to attack them with fact, sexy male and female figures cavorting around of mixed cultures languages.
Some illustrators of Adult graphic comics would really have a ball drawing regular people imbuing them with heroic looking bold, muscular bodies because they’re minds are free or fighting to free themselves of antiquated, obsolete ideas, and concepts of race.

Why not show someone winning the psychological fight within themselves and the freer their minds are the better exterior there bodies are. There are multitudes of super people who no longer or never thought of their fellow humans as worthless. This will make many hate mongers do the frustrated jump stomp like a certain former American 1996 Gold medal winner turned red-white-and blue clothed "Smack Down" wrestler.
If readers have better ideas on how to deal with these hate-you-all equally folks, you know where to find my site.

Oh, you might as well make money at it and or place them for free.

But since its on or near the hate site you should back up your works because some of those sites will disappear because of graphic sexual content.

The real reason is all those happy, healthy, multi racial, individuals, couples, children, and grandchildren cavorting on there website.

And whenever they pop up other people will take up the cause.

There are more great people in the world than limited minded ones.

It may be a crack pot idea but someone had to come up with not other people should try it out and see what happens in a few months.

I didn’t mention Sup. Gavin Newsom’s Proposition N.

For Crass ‘N’ Crap, no that, Crook ‘N’ Creep, um Nuked or No Neuron’s.

Clip ‘N’ Collect.

Whatever… Oh, its Care Not Cash,.

Never mind read Prop. N and find out what all the scam-uh, story is all about.

To all Hacker’s internationally, crossing all boarders and languages (which will confuse and further frustrate ‘em to no end) this can be an on going job/careers as long hate mongers swell the net freedom hackers should also be there.

Giving them a bad time and simultaneously learning a craft and being more creative… Bye.

My price range:
$25 per day for apartment or
small cottage home 1 to 3 bedrooms,

$100 a week, and $2 to $3,000 a month.

Certain homes, flats, mansions with 20 or more rooms are to 50

to $100,000 monthly though prices are negotiable.

Please send donations to
Poor Magazine or in C/0
Ask Joe at 255 9th St. Street,
San Francisco, CA. 94103 USA

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

by Talibah Shakir and Leroy Moore

Talibah Shakir;

Before I begin, I ask that everyone observe a moment of silence for our comrade Dana, who has joined the ancestors.

Oakland, we are here toady because we share the problem of racial profiling with you and with people of color around the world. We are here because of the beating of 16-year-old Donovan Jackson by Inglewood Police; we are here because we are tired of being condemned by this society because of the color of our skin.

Donovan and his father were attacked because they were 2 black men in a fairly new car, they were attack because in the minds of the police, and most of this society, that people of color are thieves and criminals.

We are not criminals, we are the victims and have been victimized for over 400 years, in this very country that make our school children pledge allegiance to a flag that is supposed to represent liberty and justice for all.

Donovan did not have the liberty to choose to get his ass beat or not. Neither he nor his father had liberty to stop to get gas without being attacked, there was no justice in 4 officers beating one 16-year-old special Education student, and then choking him until he was unconscious.

But there was allegiance on the part of the police and sheriffs that stood by as my cousin was slammed unconscious against the back of a police car, beaten in the face and choked.

What we have here in America is racial profiling and every person of color is, has or will be a victim of racial profiling.

It was racial profiling that brought blacks here to America, that stole the land of the Native Americans, that crossed the border on the Chicanos and established miscegenation laws that forbid Asians to marry whites.

We have protested, demonstrated, and rallied and the beating goes on and on, it is oblivious that Plan A is not working and we must go to plan B. We must make our elected officials stand up for the people and make our demands known and our desires fulfilled.

Either our demands are met, or we do not re-elect the politicians, and I do not care what color they are. No justice no peace and that goes for our politicians as well.

Donovan Jackson should not have been beaten, but racial profiling did not start with Donovan, but it should end with him. AS I stand here for all victims of racial profiling I must ask the question, "Why do we continue to allow this to happen?"

Racial Profiling, police abuse, political prisoners, discrimination, racism, murder of our people, Native Americans on reservations… People we have a big problem, and to the politicians I ask who among will revere our people?

The preceeding statement was written by Donovan Jackson’s Cousin who with twenty-five plus supporters carpooled on a bus from Inglewood, Ca, to the home of the Black Panthers, West Oakland to the Stop Police Brutality Day on August 24th 2002 at the famous Little Bobby Hutton Park.

Leroy Moore;

Stop Police Brutality Day

I can’ rest

My disabled brothers and sisters

Are shot, dragged and
beaten to death

Hello, my name is Leroy Moore, I’m a proud disabled African American poet, activist and Executive Director of Disability Advocates of Minorities Organization (DAMO). DAMO is the only organization for and by people of color with disabilities, our families in the Bay Area and the whole state of California.

one of the many reasons why DAMO & I can’t rest is the long list of disabled people of color who are beaten by police everyday:

And the list goes on and on. Some times I wonder I’m I the only one that hears the cries and screams of my disabled brothers and sisters? These are my disabled brothers and sisters of color who have been murdered by police however most of the times their stories and disability are not known to the public.

Nobody is talking about the raise of police shootings and violence against disabled people of color. Many times their disability is not reported in the media or love ones hide their disability out of shame or try to protect them. This is only silencing the deadly issue and oppressing the victim’s true identity.

This is one reason why DAMO will be kicking off what we call ABC on DPOC, Abuse, Brutality, Crimes on Disabled People of Color project to Break the Silence on this issue and to empower people with disability and their families. Lets come together with all of our identities and fight against police brutality, and other crimes and violence on our brothers and sisters.

This goes out to my Disabled Brother of Color:

My Disabled Brother of Color

My disabled brother of color

Has it rough

Father gone, could not deal

Mother strong, has to be real

Belongs to two communities

Doors slammed and locked

Shocked into reality

Has no identity

My disabled brother of color

On the streets

Dragging his feet

His eyes meet mine

And I can read his mind

Life is long, lonely and tough

If you’re a disabled brother

Mother’s love is not enough

Sisters want a strong, able brother

Your story and history is shunned by society

Confused by what you see on T.V.

No wonder you play down your disability

Am I the only proud disabled brother of color?

My disabled brother of color

Is angry at his brothers and sisters

"Fuck you and your pity

What’s wrong, do you feel guilty!"

Living and working in a world that doesn’t want me

Always under never over

Under the poverty line & pop, pop, pop under attack

My disabled brother of color is OVERWELMED

So what’s the answer,

My disabled brother of color?

Are we going to go on not recognizing each other?

Lets come together

Speak our anger

And set this goddam world on fire

Cause you are my brother

Leroy Moore’s Observations of the Day

After four hours of participating, listening to speakers and networking with:Danny Garcia, Kiilu Nyasha, Russ Redner, Black Panthers, members of ILWU Local 10, the coordinator of the rally, the Liberation Front and West Oakland residents, I was reminded of Spike Lee's movie, Get On the Bus as I watched 25 plus supporters and family members of Donovan Jackson Chavis get back on the bus to drive away. Knowing they will continue their work in their communities. As I walked to the Bart Station, I looked down to a flyer I had in my hand. It read "Just Say No To Jerry Brown! We Don’t Need 100 More OAKLAND RIDERS. PRESS CONFERNCE & RALLY Oakland City Hall Wednesday, August 28th 12:00pm. I took a deep breath as my tired body limped toward the 12th Street Bart Station.

To read more of Leroy’s work on police brutality against disabled people of color go on-line to www.poormagazine.org and click on Illin and Chillin- to get your story of police brutality and/or profiling call POOR at (415) 863-6306

by Leroy Moore/Illin and Chillin and DAMO

Why does the mainstream media have a laissez-faire approach when it comes to covering issues that touch my disabled community?

Back in 1999, I started writing for POOR Magazine/PoorNewsNetwork trying to find a media outlet that would listen to and publish my stories on the struggles, talents, and rights of disabled people of color. At that time there was very little in any form of media about disabled people of color, and it is still so.

Throughout the years I’ve written about many issues affecting my disabled brothers and sisters of color; from movie critiques, racism in the disability movement, the high unemployment rates among disabled people of color, senseless crimes and police brutality, shooting of people with disabilities, mental illness, as well as the recent government policies that are making disabled and elderly people homeless.

As a disabled activist, Executive Director of Disability Advocates of Minorities Organization, and writer, I have realized even in the year 2002 the mainstream media hasn’t changed their laissez-faire approach of issues facing disabled people in general, especially disabled people of color. Do they still have a fuzzy relationship with the Jerry Lewis telethon’s view of disability, that our only problem is that we, all, are still looking for a cure and we are all taken care of by father Jerry, and Uncle Sam’s benefits and programs? How can the largest minority group in the world get little or no media coverage?

Since the birth of Disability Advocates of Minorities Organization, DAMO, we have been very vocal on harsh realities that surround us and have also been a stage for our beautiful talents, voices, and history in the local Bay Area. However, through the five years of DAMO, the mainstream media hasn’t paid us no mind. In the first three years of DAMO we’ve held poetry events, had a public access talk show, put on rallies, press conferences on both sides of the Bay, have done some incredible community and system advocacy, and publicly spoke about hush-hush issues that people are not talking about. For example, issues such as the wrongful incarceration of Black disabled people, and how city bureaucrats are making disabled elderly homeless, but still mainstream media hasn’t made our issues a priority.

Last year the Black community protested the San Francisco Chronicle for a lack of coverage. However, the only time I see the Chronicle do anything which touch the disabled community is during the Americans with Disabilities Act Birthday. Or there are feel-good articles attached to the horrible way mainstream media (i.e., the San Francisco Chronicle) paints the picture of homeless people with disabilities. Just like the Black non-disabled community claimed lack of coverage, the disabled people of color community is claiming when they do a disability piece, nine times out of ten there is a lack of ethnic diversity in their coverage of our communities and issues. In February, Black History Month of this year, I was one of the awardees for KQED local hero. Did I get a call from the Chronicle? No! The only mainstream press in the Bay Area that contacted me was the Oakland Tribune and wrote a full spread article. I think the real reason why the Tribune wrote the article is because the reporter who contacted me and wrote the article also writes for a Black newspaper, the San Francisco Bayview, who was the first newspaper who published my articles dealing with disabled people of color. However this laissez-faire media approach goes beyond DAMO and I!

It seems if you put the word DISABLED in your press release, then you can forget about getting mainstream media coverage. A good example of my above comment was the May 23rd, 2002, press conference at the steps of Oakland courthouse. The purpose of this press conference was to spotlight the inhuman treatment by the Alameda County toward a poor Black family, the Sloans, of Oakland, California. We were also there to speak about how the County has separated this family by putting their disabled elderly mother in a nursing home and are now raising the rent of their own home; causing them to go to court with no representation to see if they can stay in their home and to have custody of their own mother. At the press conference the only media that showed was The Sun Reporter, despite the fact POOR Magazine wrote a press release to all mainstream media and called them repeatedly. After the press conference the Co-editor of POOR Magazine, who were acting as advocates for the Sloan Family, realized that on the press release was the term ‘disabled elder’ and thought back to all the events and conferences held by Disability Advocates of Minorities Organization in which POOR Magazine was the only media that showed up.

This kind of hands off approach is a common reality when it comes to getting media coverage on disabilities issues, art, culture, etc. Even disabled famous people of color struggle to get media coverage. In Teddy Pendegress’ book, Truly Blessed, he discussed how the media wrote that his career as a singer was over because of his fatal car accident that left him physically disabled. After his car accident, his face disappeared from the media cameras. Although he was in concert in Oakland earlier this year, the only source that covered his concert and mentioned his disability in a positive light was the San Francisco Bay View, a Black Bay Area newspaper. This, compared to the love affair the media has with Christopher Reeves and now Michael J. Fox, both White and disabled. It’s not only a Black and White thing either. Have you heard of Gaynell Colburn? If you rely on mainstream news you’ll never know who she is. Colburn is the hottest Latina percussionist on earth and she is physically disabled. Although she has played with Stevie Wonder, Herbi Hancock, and Grover Washington, it’s almost impossible to find her records anywhere. Plus she is nowhere to be found in the media despite her debut as an actress in the Hollywood movie, The Adjudication Hunter. So is it time for the disabled community to picket the Chronicle, ABC, CBS and NBC?

At the kick-off press conference during Martin Luther King’s Birthday to introduce the only campaign in the Bay Area to teach community organizing to disabled people of color, a veteran disabled Latino organizer looked at the small crowd and realized once again mainstream media was not there. He shouted, "If they don’t come to us, we will go to them. Mainstream media, you’re going to get your ass picketed!" This is not a threat, it’s reality! It is time to end the mainstream media’s Laissez—faire approach on disabled issues and our lives.

Leroy F. Moore Jr.

Executive Director of DAMO

by Richard Midgett/PNN Media intern

"Dear Richard Midgett the city of Fresno hereby denies your claim with the city by operation of law"

7 AM. And 90 degrees Fahrenheit confirmation that I was in Fresno California. It was time for the moment of truth and I had to bike the 2 or so miles from the shelter to my P.O. box. Already sweating from the morning sun beating down I was not looking forward to this adventure. Leaving downtown promptly at 9 AM. I was reviewing all the cases I had filed and thinking to myself if I had left anything out or room for the city to argue some lame excuse for their screw-ups. The more I thought as I rode the hotter the sun felt on my back. Did I name all of the parties involved? Did I use all of the appropriate code violations for all the accusations I had made? Did "I'" fuck this up? Or would I be vindicated in my advocacy for a friend who was being railroaded by anyone in a position of authority.

The closer I got to my destination the slower I felt I was peddling. I had lost my home, my job and my property in this case as "Fresno's' finest" (police) had thrown me out. They violated my civil rights because they had no writ of possession. Also the police only gave me ten minutes to pack and my little car could not fit a bedroom worth of furniture into it.

I arrived in a pool of sweat and panic to the post office. Upon opening my box I saw the last 2 months of work staring me in the face. This literally was it. I either would come through this more prosperous as well as my friend and roommate or… I did not know what the hell the "or" part was or would be. I was relying on my faith and advocacy to bring me good karma.

Using my left thumb I slid my finger threw the envelope opening it slowly and looking for a sign of surrender, defeat or some indication that maybe just maybe the city was wrong in this matter on at least one issue.

"The city of Fresno hereby denies your claim by operation of law". Ok. So I lost this one so it is city 1 me zero. Next play. I was very thorough in my investigations and clearly remember on one of my trips downtown to drop off a finished case their was a group of city officials arguing with the analyst assigned to my cases about the police departments responsibility for dependent adults. I had figured I at least won that case as I proved beyond any reasonable doubt (love that phrase) by citing over 20 welfare and institution codes regarding the police departments responsibilities under the DEPENDENT ADULT PROTECTION ACT.

Their were so many types of case I had filed that as I opened each letter I had to look at the filing dates to remember what each case was.

On to next envelope. In my mind I saw the case as it unfolded again, remembering the date for the circumstances " the city of Fresno hereby denies your claim by operation of law". As I look at the third envelope I am beginning to feel a bit of despair. Did I lose? Or was I losing? I began to start asking my self. I open this envelope a bit more slowly, reviewing the date of the incident with the case file. " The city of Fresno Hereby denies your claim by operation of law". At this point I just start ripping open the remainder of the letters. It becomes easy to see what the position of the city is because your eyes eventually as the letter opens becomes transfixed on the exact location of the page were the words begin. The city of Fresno.. .

I opened every letter from the city. I leaned onto the table in the post office and became sort of numb. I could not believe it. I had taken these cases all the way up to the city council and no one was willing to admit liability. Or were they? . I was too angry to think about that right now. I was to shocked and amazed to think about what I had read very clearly .All I saw at this point was that I had lost and I had lost big. My whole life right in front of me now gone. I was in school. Something I worked over a year to return to. Had a good part time job something else I worked for a year to achieve with my boss so I would not be called in for overtime or extra assignments that would affect my classes. I lost my property. All that stuff I could not fit into my small car like my computer, schoolbooks, bed, and television. The big stuff. Not as important as the little things but can create a real inconvenience when you find a new place and have nothing to put into it. You now have to buy it form scratch.

I got onto my bike and headed towards the college. Another one of those things I had worked hard to achieve was housing closer to school. I am now picturing those little wings that fly around usually holding money in the middle and flying away but in this case the object in the middle is my house and it is flying into a sea of flames. My temporary housing is now gone since it was my sister's couch and she has four children to raise and needs here space. The sun feels hotter against my back as I cruise down the street that I have traveled for almost a year but now not knowing what is at the end of it for me.

It was a Saturday and holiday weekend so no one was really on campus and I first felt a sea of depression coming over me if I stepped onto the campus so I parked at a bus stop bench across the street to gather my thoughts.

I read and re-read each letter I had received at least twice. I then counted the letters. I had received eight letters covering 23 separate cases involving issues of criminal and civil rights violations to general incompetence. This city had broken a lot of laws and did actually admit they had done so.

The city felt a certain level of immunity as no Fresno county judge would challenge their actions as I had tried to do in vain. Also getting any lawyer in Fresno to challenge the status quo of the city, its policies or practices was impossible. They all went to the same law school for Fresno County and were all literally alumni of each other.

If you checked District Attorney records, Public Defender records and a large majority of sitting judges they had all gone to San Juaquin College of Law. Bit of a conflict of interest I had thought.

So I sat on the bench of the college campus remembering my short life here .I will miss you all very much. Have to go now. Back to the shelter to pack my few bags then San Francisco here I come. .

by Ed Willard/PNN Community Journalist and POWER Member

This is the story of how the POWER (People Organized to Win Employment Rights) union, a union made up of poor people, homeless people, working class people, in coalition with several other grassroots organizations of poor and homeless folks took the first big step in fighting back against forces in this city that would like to take from us the things that are rightfully ours. Shortly I'll tell that story, but first...................

On a grim, rainy Saturday in November, 2001, scarcely two months since the events of 9/11, I hunched my shoulders against the cold as I pushed through the wind, walking down 9th St. toward the Quaker Meeting Hall, the site of POWERs monthly membership meeting. The bad weather provided a fitting backdrop for my queasy inner feelings of discomfort at the way things were going in the world. President Bush had declared "permanent war" and the bombs were already dropping on Afghanistan, killing thousands of innocent people in a dubious search for "terrorists". On the home front, the Patriot Act had become law, granting the police broad powers to lock people up without due process of law. I felt like I was living in a police state with the mainstream media screaming about the need for revenge, increased surveillance at home and the worst part................ most everyone seemed to be buying the lies, a fact driven home again and again by all the nationalist flag waving. Lies were everywhere and I wanted to see what my friends down at POWER had to say about things

By the end of that meeting I felt a bit better. Folks at POWER were worried too but everyone there was committed to getting at the truth and saw that as the first step in changing things. And then POWER folks had the attitude that the only way to change this system was for us to get together................. to unite to fight against repression and exploitation........................... to fight against the lies. When I walked back into the cold rain on that Saturday afternoon I had a spark warming my insides..................... an idea that went like this: Sometimes things have to get REALLY bad before they can get better. In the big picture things had been bad. Poor and working class folks worldwide had always been exploited by the system of imperialism and capitalism, the same system that waged unjust wars in the name of "democracy" and "freedom", more lies to cover up the greed of the huge international corporations. The thought I had then that was becoming a fire in my belly was that just maybe the forces of repression had gone to far this time.....

OK, that was nearly a year ago and my idea is being proved in a way that I hadn't anticipated then. I got back involved with POWER at a high level like in the old days when I was on GA and now we're in a local fight against Proposition N, a fight against Gavin Newsom, who introduced the initiative for vote on the November ballot and a fight against the forces who fund and support it. Essentially the Proposition seeks to slash folks GA benefits, cutting them from $320.00 down to 59 dollars per month. And Newsom tours the city making speeches about how all GA recipients are drug addicts ad that Prop N will "relieve" people of their drug money and provide services, (housing and drug treatment), instead. One lie on top of another, as anyone who reads the language of the bill will see: NO SUCH SERVICES ARE ACTUALLY PROVIDED FOR IN IT. In fact, if Prop N becomes law, it is sure to increase homelessness.

But just the way I believe that, in the big picture, the forces of exploitation have gone too far, I see that locally Newsom and his supporters have crossed the line. A month ago the POWER union and it's allies organized an action against Prop N and folks showed up in numbers to demonstrate and picket Newsom's fund-raiser. Since then anger against Newsom and Nasty N has been growing. POWER staff and steering committee members investigated and found out who the main funders of Prop N were. Turns out the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, (GGRA), was among the biggest funders. The association includes dozens of restaurants spread over the Bay Area and it's president is Kathleen Harrington, owner of Harringtons Bar and Grill. So an action was organized against Harringtons and it was set for 6PM on Friday evening.

Well, I knew that POWER members were angry about Prop N, but still I was unprepared for the scene at the POWER office last Friday at 4:30 where we had agreed folks would meet up. When I walked through the door it was into a packed office, dozens upon dozens of members, lots of them on GA, mad as hell and ready to fight! After some final preparations people left the office in waves getting on the Market St Busses with a prearranged meeting spot at a park a couple of blocks from the restaurant. From there folks marched down to Harringtons. I arrived a few minutes later in my car with food for the demonstrators and signs for everyone to carry. POWERs allies in the Coalition Against An Increase In Homelessness had arranged for a sound system to be brought down there, (actually the whole set up was a very cool, rolling PA system that hooked up to a bicycle), as well as several staff writers and media organizers from POOR Magazine who were calling for a boycott of the GGRA, members of Gays against Newsom, folk from Coalition on Homelessness and many more joined in a very loud protest.

"You can buy Gavin Newsom". Cindy Weisner from POWER was leading the chants in a loud, booming voice.

And the response from the crowd, "But you can't buy the people!"

"You can buy an expensive burger".

"But you can't buy the people!".

"You can buy the politicians".

"But you can't buy the people!".

There were 80 to 100 of us there and we had formed a picket line circling in an oval around the PA system in front of the restaurant. Actually the place is a sidewalk cafe with metal tables set up in front and some yuppies were sitting at these looking a curious mixture of confused and entertained, (after all we were putting on a good show). In front of the entrance was planted a uniformed security guard and a couple of guys in suits. (I later learned that one of these was Mike Farrah, Newsom's aide who had been sent there as a spy. Steve Williams got him into a conversation and asked him what he thought of Prop N and though he slithered out of any direct response, Steve said it was clear he wasn't any too happy with Newsom's brainchild.)

We had organized a delegation to go into the restaurant to present Kathleen Harrington with a list of demands, (basically boiling down to one demand, that being to STOP FUNDING PROP N!). When the delegation tried to walk through the front door they were muscled to a halt by the security guard and the suits. Later Garth Ferguson told me that he got hopping mad when the guard started to become physical with him. When it became clear that the delegation wasn't going to be let in, we started to chant, "Let them in............. let them in!" Harrington never did face us but finally sent her manager out, he listened politely to POWERs spokesperson, Teresa Guerra as she presented the demands and even signed our document, promising to give it to Harrington.

To wind things up Cindy POWER gave a rousing speech about how POWER wouldn't sit still while politicians, backed by the GGRA and other downtown big business interests attempted to steal GA money from homeless folks. About how that GA stipend was money we worked for. About how the politicians and lawmakers needed to start working on real solutions to homelessness like affordable housing for all and job programs paying a living wage.

Cindy's voice over that PA system was plenty loud but it seemed even louder because it was the truth and as I looked around at the faces of all the POWER members there I knew they felt it too, the volume and the power of the truth. And just then, I thought I could see the beginnings of the movement that I had first envisioned on that cold, rainy Saturday back in November, a movement that would start small but that would grow into something big, something big enough to challenge the lies and injustices all over the world.

by PNN staff

This is the story of three young girls

All inadvertantly seeking and believing in

Education

Assimilation

Repudiation

And recrimination

Myobe from west africa

Leticia from Southern Mexico

and

Lisa from southern california

Great students- all- drinking knowledge like water

They dreamed of books and words – numbers and places-

history and scholarship wafted through their brains- moments of learning were like
music and chocolate

To an unquenchable palate

They all heard the laughter –

Some knew… some didn’t

Myobe – it is time for you to join the rest of the family in the fields – you cannot go to
school anymore – her eyes stole away for dry tears –her mind wrapped around grain
and heat – survival and disappointment

She began to hear the laughter

Days turned into months – months into years

flys circled her parched lips –

and still she heard the laughter

the laughter emanating from mouths and hearts of other children not stealing time away
from struggle – and survival.. death and life

Leticia it is time you must help your mother at the jugo stand in el ciudad– you cannot
go to school anymore – there is no more time

It was always known

she only flirted with books and teachers – playgrounds and words-

this day was always known and yet

and yet…

her eyes opened and closed slowly trying to run back to the life before the sentence
was said – it was only a moment ago and yet it was forever

and then she heard the laughter

seasons and days – hours and years

and still she heard the laughter

IT was under her window in the morning – sailing through a smog filled sky in a so-
cal painting– giggles erupting into guffaws – unabridged – unweilding unstoppable
laughs of children who learned without end – who tasted the books and time – who
ate large feasts of history and snacked on words – who dreamt of futures filled with
more words and more time and more time…and

Lisa why are you late? You can’t be late again or you will be expelled

Her teachers hurled at her and then again

Lisa if you are absent another day I will mark you down

Lisa you can’t go to school anymore – you need to help me out

And the words didn’t register and the time wasn’t clear and the moment was never
spoken really but it was and Then she heard the laughter –

Of children not weighted with survival walking no running, to school to take part in
more…..

Education

Assimiliation

Repudiation and recrimination

And she wanted it so bad that she could not feel anything anymore except desire

Years became days and days became minutes and then suddenly –

the desire was changed…

responsibility for family over self felt right…

Phds were earned in poverty 101 – a liberal arts degree in survival, a Master’s
Degrees in pain a thesis in resistance until they no longer wanted…

Education

Assimilation

Repudiation

And recrimination

And only

Regeneration

And revelation

to community survival and..

identification

by PNN staff

Last week the POOR staff honored Youth in the media intern Isabel Estrada’s departure to Columbia Univ with a poem, statement or song and community dinner;

This gathering was part of POOR’s Intentional Community Project which is a key part of surviving poverty and racism

by PNN staff

My dentist was born in Cuba

Dr. Chang

A Chinese Guy

(Chorus) Dr. Chang/Dr Armando Chang…

I am deathly

Afraid of Dr. chang

(Chorus) Dr. Chang/Dr Armando Chang…

I was supposed to see Dr. chang Friday –

I wished someone else could go to Dr. chang in my place

(Chorus) Dr. Chang/Dr Armando Chang…

to get a root canal

because a filling came out along with a piece

of tooth

(Chorus) Dr. Chang/Dr Armando Chang…

See,

I did not see

Dr. Chang

(Chorus- Very LOUD) Dr. Chang/Dr Armando Chang…

On Friday

Born in Cuba

Because I was afraid

Dr. Chang would

Do something to

My tooth

(Chorus- Softly) Dr. Chang/Dr Armando Chang…

that would cause me to not do the send-off for

Isabel

Who unlike Dr. Chang

(Chorus-LOUDLY) Dr. Chang/Dr Armando Chang…

wants to live in Cuba

and has just returned from Cuba

unlike..

(Chorus-LOUDLY) Dr. Chang/Dr Armando Chang…
(Chorus-Softly) Dr. Chang/Dr Armando Chang…

Men;(Chorus-LOUDLY) Dr. Chang/Dr Armando Chang…

Women: (Chorus-LOUDLY) Dr. Chang/Dr Armando Chang…

Men and Women; (Chorus-softly) Dr. Chang/Dr Armando Chang…

All together (Chorus- louder) Dr. Chang/Dr Armando Chang…

All together (Chorus-louder still) Dr. Chang/Dr Armando Chang…

All together (Chorus-Softly) Dr. Chang/Dr Armando Chang…

All together ((Chorus –still softer) Dr. Chang/Dr Armando Chang…

All together ((Chorus- a Whisper) Dr. Chang/Dr Armando Chang…

by Joe B.

To you lovely one.

For luminous Isabell Estrada.


May you be helped and protected by angels,


Succeed in all your endeavors.


May your Best Destiny always


be known and controlled by you.



By Joseph Bolden