Story Archives 2002

by Becky Johnson

Dear Ms. Gaura,

In your article today about Camp Paradise, you state the following: Critics warn that previous attempts to create legal camping for the homeless in Santa Cruz, including a tent city and car camping zones, have failed dramatically.

Which critics are you quoting? Why don't these critics have names and quotes? Regarding the previous attempts at a car camping zone, which "failed dramatically" as you put it, could you elaborate? Wasn’t that when a previous City Council voted on a first reading to set up safe zones in the industrial area, leading you to write in a Chronicle article that the City of Santa Cruz had repealed its entire camping ordinance?

Have you ever corrected that completely false information you published then? Do you have any information at all on the "failure" of those car camping zones? How could they fail when they were never opened? I notice there is no such information in your article today.

I find it appalling that you write today of the past "dramatic failure" of those car camping zones when it was your misinformation published prominently in the SF Chronicle that led to the defection of Council member Katherine Beiers on the 2nd reading of the ordinance. The ordinance, if it had passed, would have legalized sleeping in the two industrial zones of Santa Cruz, but not repealed the entire camping ordinance as you reported at the time.

As for the failure of the Coral Street Open Air Shelter, in December of 1995, a topic I'm sure you know nothing about as well, it "failed" when City Council members Scott Kennedy and Mike Rotkin came down and closed the campground and threatened anyone who stayed with arrest. Upwards of 225 homeless people were dislocated and several deaths were reported as a direct result of the closure of that facility. If that's a failure, it belongs to the City of Santa Cruz and does not belong with either the campground or the homeless people who took refuge there.

You report of some mysterious "magnet syndrome" but provide no statistics to support your contention. You report of "tons of trash" and "environmental damage" caused by homeless people but you provide no evidence of this damage nor have you explained how the City could differentiate the trash of 1000 homeless people from the trash left by 2.3 million tourists to the Boardwalk each year.

Your anti-homeless bias is showing. If you can't report straight facts when it comes to homeless issues, perhaps you should switch to the garden report. That way your tainted reporting with its underlying bias will only threaten the marigolds and not threaten the health and safety of the human beings involved.

Becky Johnson

Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom

Santa Cruz, Ca.

by Sandra Brown and Fiona Gow

My familiarity with Juvenile Dependency Court started almost three years ago, I was living in a shelter and with great love and sorrow, I decided to place my daughter in a children's shelter for five days. I put her in this situation because I caught scabies and it was contagious and I was concerned that I would infect her.

With no family to turn to, and no home of my own, this decision was the best I could make for my little girl. Within days CPS attained possession of my child, took her out of the shelter, and sentenced her to foster care. To date, she has been detained in four different foster homes. My daughter currently resides at The Edgewood Center for Children and Families.

At my last court date I had more in a series of disrespectful encounters with court officials. I have a strong presence and people take notice when I walk into a room. Even so, I work very hard to maintain my dignity in these courtrooms. I wanted the judge to know how serious I was and informed her that I had fired my court appointed attorney because I felt my attorney was not accurately representing me.

The judge, probably enraged at the determination she saw within me, yelled at me, "You can’t just go around firing lawyers!" Her's was one of the many voices that shot like needles into me. All of my experiences with these people who were supposedly there to help had been filled with pain. But I am not one to back down and in this battle I continue to gather my strength.

I responded to her angry words, "Yes I can. It’s my legal right." Did this judge not realize how serious this battle was to me? I could not have someone I did not trust representing me in the most important battle of my life.

At this last court date, the Juvenile Dependency Court judge kicked me out her courtroom because I too persistently asked her for the meaning of a word. She had used a word I didn’t understand in speaking of me to the City Attorney and I felt it was my right to know what was being said. This was only one in a long line of disrespectful experiences had had within this court.

I am also very upset about the representation my child has received. I feel that her attorney has presented false information about her. This attorney has never checked on the safety of my child in the 2 years that she has been her attorney. What kind of attorney is this?

My opinion is that the attorneys and judges who work with the Department of Social Services, the Family and Juvenile Courts, Juvenile Probation officials, Mental Health Clinic workers, the S.F. Police Department, the S.F. District Attorney, the Foster Care Licensing Agency, and the S.F. Unified School District and Board of Education all provide false representation. They may be smiling, going to church with us, or even working with us, but underneath I feel they are destroying our children.

Watch out for these people who say that they are there to help. They are everywhere… They hold different positions in the City departments, community organizations and centers, and drug programs. They may work as mental health counselors or work in churches, temples, hospitals, and schools. Some of them may even be your family members and family friends. So watch out!

December 4th, 2001 was my daughter’s birthday. She is still not with me. Who did she celebrate her birthday with? Who did I celebrate her birthday with? How am I to endure this? How am I to overcome this struggle?

For answers I find myself looking to the Bible. I want to suggest to others in facing similar hardship that you get your Bible and read Ezekiel 23:36-48, about the wicked mothers. Genesis 19:1-11 is also very relevant as is St. Luke 18:15-6 where the disciples refuse the little children. Lastly, I suggest that you read all of Jude.

This biblical background reminds me of the book about Mary McCloud Bethune. The book tells of how her 12 brothers and sisters were sold into slavery like animals. I feel that my experience with the Department of Social Services, Foster Care Licensing, the Juvenile Courts, Family Courts and Children’s medical facilities parallels Mary McCloud Bethune’s story. I am experiencing the modern day version of having my children sold into slavery.

These injustices have been going on in our communities for over 50 years and no one has had the courage to challenge them. But with Jesus Christ directing me I will, as Rosa Parks did, take a stand. I must, because our future existence is at stake! We as a people must rid our communities of all false things, running them out and praying fervently to denounce the demonic curses placed on our families, our churches, and our organizations.

I am making a plead to every Born Again Christian to take up your shield of faith, your breast plate of righteousness and truth, your feet of peace, your helmet of salvation, your sword of the spirit. Take the word of God to claim and walk and talk in victory for our children. Bless our mother country Africa from now on. Please contact us at 921-4935 to join the Victorious movement of Rebuilding our communities.

by Joe B.

I woke up 7:23 am. Sluggishly took a long, lengthy shower until I feel tingling clean and by 8:39 I’m out my apartment complex and on Market Street.

It is less people on the sidewalk with few cars moving slowly in the street stopping at lights, going through lights, and me as a pedestrian waiting until a car or two zips trough intersections not waiting for walker’s to cross.

After being hit by cars in New York. and in California years later. These separate incidents taught me not only to always look both ways but take time crossing even after the light turns green or the white-walking-figure is one because auto’s don’t really see us.

Nothing really happened today at least after newsroom.

It’s a dull day, nothing is going on as I leave POOR’s office, walking home. 5:23 pm. back in the old neighborhood.

The American war in Afghanistan is another way of avoiding festering problems of economic woes further worsened by this conventional weapons destroying other countries infrastructures.

I don’t know what will happen after this undeclared war ends but I do know our progress has been slowed by this conflict.

I’m ready for all the governments including ours to open their secret files on any alien science that landed, crashed, or was accidentally found and used for other purposes than exploration and improving our condition.

I’m thinking what if aliens are visiting ordinary, everyday folk in parks, their homes, apartments, shelters, and are in disguise.

People who are homeless or working poor are not deemed important to the country as a whole and would be a perfect place to hide, gather, information, or befriend a few.

It would be logical place to hide among working poor or those in shelters instead of making spectacles of themselves near the White House landing on the lawn or hovering over the Capitol Dome.

If I ever met an alien-in-hiding he/she/sex neutral could have a safe space if they shared some of their tech ‘n science like slowed aging, trans-matt (teleportation science and technologies).

That’s what I am musing about as I enter Market Street at 5:48 pm.

A few people think I’m one... It's ridiculous, on the other hand[just kidding]

A normal looking woman, man, boy, or girl child working in a non profit or for profit fields doing their jobs but afterwards gather information for purposes we earther’s cannot imagine.

Just a thought. The night is lightly cold and I shiver a little. Bye.

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 Joe B.

Housesitting, it means not mean our literal rear ends sitting atop the room of a home straddling it two edges that meet and forms the exterior protection of a house.

It simply means watching someone's home or your own from inside.

It should be called house watcher since that's what sitters do.

Baby-sitters don't sit on infants or small children they watch over and supposedly protect them while the parent(s) or relatives are away.

For me being a housesitter would be a dream occupation in that I receive part payment and the rest when homeowner return.

If they [the owners] have pets I must know their daily feeding, sleep, and outside walking exercise schedules, individual moods.

My main problem for now is being bondable, that's having a set insurance price on myself in case I brake anything.

One can be insured for 100, 300, or more dollars but I know it would have to be at least a few thousand and to show prospective customers the legal documentation, phone and address of the insurance company or corp. that drew up the contract with signatures along with my signed.

It will take time building up both trust and having $5,000 to $10,000 bondable insurance on my person but its not impossible.

The neighborhood or closest well known neighbor are notified that a stranger is hired by them to live in their home while they are away but just in case they too can watch the watcher and call the proper authorities if something seems a bit off to them.

Prices for watching someone's most precious of possessions their home should have sliding or set prices.

My price for example would range from $25 per day for apartment complex or small cottage 2 to 4 bedrooms, $100 a week, and $2 or $3,000 a month.

As you can see the longer one stays the more expensive the cost because of the time inside a home.

Year, I know what you'll say "Your 'doin 'nothin but laying about an empty house living off the fat in someone's homes." [I must remind buyers of my services, I don't wash window's, cars, chimminies, or tell preteens or older, bigger children what to do, unless they're doing harm to themselves as in drugs,
drink, glue, ear bleeding music ect.

Though I may help clean up their party-while-parents-are-away-mess, but that's all;[sex with minors NO WAY EVER!

I'll Quit and Complain Later.]

For certain houses, flats, mansions with 20 or more rooms my price increased to 50 to $100,000 monthly though prices are negotiable.

Living in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, or any of those cities where people even after Sept. 11, 2001 must travel on short or extended business trips or vacations need to know their homes will be safe from robbers be they friends, neighbors, or a hired and trusted housesitter.

I just don't know where to begin the process of becoming a part time or professional housesitter, there must be someone that knows.

I met a lady, Sally, and she tells me she placed an add in the paper and she was lucky that it didn't take months but a few weeks she had a gig. (entertainment jargon for job)

"Get some or half your money up front."

I did house-sit once a few years ago for a week.

I walked and fed a friendly dog every day, took out the garbage, washed the clothes, cleaned every dish and glass I ate or drank out of.

My pay was $20 which was what I asked for, I could've asked for more but didn't - was an experience.

So, if housesitter's or former housesitters can help e-mail me about the process, is there a housesitters book I can buy or union to join, maybe a club?

Anyway for those of you out there reading... I need some help.

I think I'll set my housing price for all to see. ...Bye.

P.S.

My price range: $25 per day for apartment or small cottage home 1 to 3 bedrooms, $100 a week, and $2 or $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 Joe B.

A heavy rain Sunday and today the sounds of car tires speeding on Market's wet streets.

Hurry through a quick, careful washing body, brushing of teeth minus flossing.

It’s 8:15 am. Rushing to the job. 10 0’ clock is when I'm to be in the office today but I have some errands to run first so I'll go to the office, set up the coffee then continue my business before ten church bells ring.

My eyes seem out of focus, color cones adjusts them to my pants.

I see gray knowing the pants are green. Going down the Bart subway, the florescent lights made them look green again.

Am I losing color recognition, is my sight going monochromic or is it slowly fading.

Either way its a slight scare. Luckily my cones work as people enter and exit from the station waring bright clothes of color.

Now to make the coffee quickly, return home, get to the bank, for a haircut and Las Vegas spending money.

After a withdrawal of cash racing for a real-time cooked meal on a grill one can see in a regular restaurant.

I pass by a cop detaining two dudes and sitting all bashed up is guy with one cut bruised eye the other blue-purple with light pink on the edges.

The guy is young, looks like he was mangled by one of those steamrollers with the huge, square, steel, points on them.

It looked as if he got run over, survived it intact but was brutally tenderized in the process.

Before catching a bus I see an elderly white guy baring his rump against a wall in the middle of a bower movement.

"Now that’s a mess on Market famous photo’s are made from and yet he’s half of 1% of the people that make up citizens here.

Most of us would look for other places to go like gas stations, café’s, those warehouse supermarkets, or Golden Gate restroom if their open – foliage in the forest if we gotta go quick.

I do not how long this series will continue, I’d like to be through with it by 2001’s end now that others have taken up the cause my written scrawls and I’ll move on to other things.

I just hope folks begin again to research his/hers-stories to relearn what our and other great countries have done both in the far and recent past and scary present.

We’ve seen, lived, know the mean old past, we’re not going back and this government seems bent on a backward spin to the so called "Good Old Days" To bad our future is calling us and it says look, listen, learn, and don’t be a drone following laws that are inhumane and draconian in nature.

We Are The Government, State, County, City, Neighborhood, and Block.

The last days of Angry, Frustrated, In-Power, Middle Aged, and Elderly White Men and Women are in a new time that has already dawned.

Let’s all walk in sunlight and among the stars. Opps, got ahead of myself, sorry.

Its drying up on Market Street and soon it’ll be time for all of us with family or without to enjoy what we can of the holiday season.

If I do not communicate for a few weeks it will be because I’m still among family and a few friends ringing in 2002.

Man! 2001 was a rough, eye opening year, America and the whole world changed forever, our "Selected President" acted like he’s the all knowing One turning Afphganistan’s infrastructure into rubble.

But just as darkness began to blot out the sun brilliant "Limitless Points Of Light" have shown the way from the shadow.

I thank those who’ve risked life, limb, and jail time for speaking out and I pray more voices continue because this Siege Mentality is still going on, we must out shout, think, love it down.

One more thing I must say.

Could it be that true Globalization ultimately means Global Peace and Cooperation?

Is the key to peace and then we can get on with Genome Transformed Humanity, Life Extension, Immortality, God’s Return, [which may be a few of days meaning thousands of years and not the endtime now.]

Cleansing Earth, A.I.- robotics, Virtual Reality so real its spooky, living in space, and finally meeting or becoming a true intergalactic, cosmic civilization.

Just a few things people like me in the so called "Mess On Market" Street think about.

Well, Live, Learn, Love, Experience, Survive, and Evolve.

If I made sense any sense at all e-or snail mail me. Bye.

P.S. My price range: $25 per day for apartment or
small cottage home 1 to 3 bedrooms, $100 a week, and

$2 or $3,000 a month.
certain homes, flats, mansions with 20 or more rooms are
50 to $100,000 monthly though prices are negotiable.

Please donate what can to
Poor Magazine or

C/0 Ask

Joe at 255 9th St.

Street, San Francisco, CA. 94103 USA

For Joe only my snail

mail:PO Box 1230 #645

Market St.San Francisco,

CA 94102

Email:askjoe@poormagazine. org

by Gretchen Hildebran/PoorNewsNetwork

The Board of Appeals hearing room on the fourth floor of San Francisco City Hall was packed, but the people kept coming. I had found a seat around five o’clock, but now the walls were lined with scores of people all wearing a bright green sticker that read, Stop Illegal SRO Conversions! The Appeals commissioners peered out from behind their high tables and glanced nervously around the room between their comments. We had all been waiting for an hour while the board discussed a procedural issue when Board of Appeals President Arnold Chin asked people waiting to have public comment and address the West Cork Hotel SRO conversion case to wait in the overflow room, he looked up for a moment and muttered " Most of the people here aren’t going to be speaking anyway, they are just here to listen" Clearly he hadn’t been paying attention when the majority of us stood and were sworn in to speak. I and the other activists and tenants had no intention of budging. But we didn’t know that President Chin would be right that none of us would get the chance to speak tonight.

A couple months ago my fellow POOR Magazine staff writer Lani Kant wrote that the West Cork Hotel case stunk. What stunk badly back in October turned rotten last Wednesday. After waiting for more than four hours, the 50 or more tenants and SRO advocates who had waited to argue this case were told that it would have to be delayed again. One of the commissioners, John McInerny III, had left the hearing due to a conflict of interest on an earlier case and simply failed to return to complete the agenda.

This is not the first time the West Cork case has been kept waiting. Randy Shaw of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic has been waiting for the case to be decided since a ruling in August of 2000 that the West Cork could not operate as a tourist hotel. The West Cork, formerly an SRO known the Empress Hotel, was closed for severe safety violations by the city in the eighties . The landlords of the building let the building sit vacant for twenty years before renovating and reopening it as a tourist hotel. The landlord’s appeal of the ruling and the endless subsequent delays have allowed them to continue operating the West Cork and cashing in on what should be homes to SRO tenants.

This hearing could have ended all that. "This should be an open and shut case," Shaw told me when I spoke with him outside the hearing room while the many assorted lawyers, tenants and activists milled around waiting (before we knew that we were waiting in vain). The landlords would need 4 commissioners to vote in their favor in order to overturn the ruling. And that wasn’t likely, as the West Cork is in open violation of a city law that protects SRO units from destruction or conversion. "But there is something fishy going on here," Shaw added. If this case was in the landlords favor, they would never keep them waiting this way."

The landlords showed up around 6:45, after the rest of us had been waiting for two hours. They must have known something we didn’t. When approached, the owners of the West Cork refused to speak with me or Tiny from Poor Magazine. They referred us to their attorney, Andrew Zacks, who must conduct his practice under the strictest guidelines of only accepting cases which perpetuate cycles of poverty and homelessness for folks in SF. This is the same attorney who made it his business in recent years to help landlords get around pesky eviction laws in order to boost up rents, thus fueling the ongoing housing crisis which has placed entire communities at risk.

In the hearing room I watched the back of Zacks’ eager balding head as he leaned forward in his chair. President Chin and the Board were joking with him about how he takes the Appeal’s rulings to court. These are the people that were to debate, decide, and delay, the fate of people’s homes. I was getting sick of waiting, of listening to people who never intended to listen to us.

After another two hours had passed, well after nine o’clock, the Board informed the dwindling crowd that they would be unable to vote on the West Cork case. Commissioner John Mcinerney, who had left the room earlier due to a conflict of interest in an earlier case, had failed to return. Landlord attorney Zacks turned down all suggestions that would have allowed people to speak on the matter anyway, even after Shaw and the THC offered to automatically count McInerney’s vote in favor of the landlords. All remaining agenda items, including hearings on illegal evictions of Philippino small businesses from the Mint Mall, were rescheduled for January.

The other commissioners, who apparently hadn’t spoken up because they thought the errant commissioner would return, seemed almost as frustrated as the crowd who had waited for four hours to speak. Perhaps they sensed the irony in the fact that during the procedural debate that had kept us waiting for the first hour and half of the meeting, Commissioner McInerney had repeatedly chastised the Board for not reviewing cases in a timely fashion. Perhaps he is only interested in expediency for certain cases.

Tenant organizer Wendy Phillips of the SRO Collaborative described the entire meeting as "very frustrating." She and other activists and tenants have been trying to get their voices heard on this case for months. "It is hard to say how intentional it was, but the effect is that people lose faith in the process of participating with city commissioners." Both Phillips and Shaw recommended that the Board revise its agenda strategy and work on communicating with the public so these kinds of mishaps don’t waste people’s time. Phillips also pointed out the inefficiency of a commissioner who is so connected with developers and landlords that he needs to recuse himself so often. Evidently commissioner McInerney is somewhat notorious for his rate of recusal. Says Phillips, "Its his responsibility to hear the cases before the board. Instead he wasted everybody’s time."

When I spoke to Shaw later in a telephone interview, he emphasized the reaction of the public to any commissioner’s lack of accountability. For one, the Board of Supervisors has put Proposition D on the March ballot, a measure that would allow the Supes to appoint some commissioners to the Planning Commission and Board of Appeals and balance out the mayoral appointees. It would also create consequences for commissioners who break the public’s trust. The stalling and poor decisions by commissioners are part of the housing crisis. As Shaw said, "building by building, this kind of behavior by city officials has helped create homelessness as we know it today."

I had to leave the hearing before it was over. But before I left, Board President Chin took time out of the lengthy meeting to, "wish everybody the warmest holiday greeting" He said, "I just want to show that I am human" As I left the hearing room, waving goodbye to tenants, advocates and fellow reporters who would wait through the night, this struck me as ironic. Chins’ and the rest of the Boards best "wishes" amount to nothing if they don’t do the work set before them. This holiday season, the West Cork will be allowed to charge tourists to stay in rooms that legally should be occupied by low-income tenants. For the thousands of folks who could be living in those rooms but have nowhere to go, and to the thousands more of us who pay rents we can’t really afford, these wishes are only empty words.

by Redelia Luna and Lisa Gray-Garcia/PoorNewsNetwork

"If you want housing by the time you get to our age—you need to support this project," said Delbert Scott as he led a cheering crowd of elders and their supporters. The crowd, from the Senior Housing Action Collective (SHAC) and Senior Action Network (SAN), rallied on the steps of City Hall before entering the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency’s Commission meeting on Tuesday, December 11th.

SHAC and SAN were there to demand that the Redevelopment Commission move forward with an 85-unit senior affordable housing project to be built by TODCO on a parking lot on an existent public housing site, Clementina Towers. The Housing Authority and the Mayor’s Office on Housing already approved the project. Unfortunately, that's when our problems began.

As a low-income elder who lives in another TODCO building, I enjoy a roof over my head as well as social activities that allow all of the tenants to know each other and support each other. This was not available to me at my last residence.

This project by TODCO faced a classic display of NIMBYISM. The neighbors, several of whom are live/work tenants and some residents of Clementina Towers were opposing the project because they said they feared construction disturbance, the loss of parking and open space as well as the fact that affordable housing could add to neighborhood security issues.

TODCO and the Housing Authority met with Clementina Towers residents for the last three and a half years to answer questions and satisfy concerns. All existing parking will be replaced on-site and the open space will be improved as requirement for building the new site. The contractor will abide by all laws as well as take extra steps to avoid construction noise and disturbance. We also met with neighbors to show how the projects' design addresses their concerns over security.

In the end we got a unanimous yes vote from the Commission to proceed with the project and I hope that as it progresses the neighbors remember that this whole thing is just about providing housing for poor elders, who like myself will not be housed, will not be sheltered, and will not be safe for the many winters to come if this building is not built.

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

Waiting for Years to get a Home....

A Poem From the Heart of an elder TODCO resident

By Gordiana S.Leduna

Lucky are the residents of

Clementina Towers

Living in the comfort of their homes..

sleeping peacefully

on cold nights....

May they have compassion for seniors who have been

waiting for years to get a home…

a shelter from rain,

heat of sun, and chilly wind.

Many will get sick, some will die

now that winter is here.

May the residents of Clementina Towers open their hearts

to let TODCO build its affordable senior housing without

delay to ease misery and pain of our homeless senior

brothers and sisters.

The residents will enjoy benefits of

TODCO'S projects

grounds and security of Clementina

Towers will be improved;

resident social services will be

available and plentiful.

I am a resident of Mendelsohn House, a TODCO building.

I've been enjoying benefits not provided in my old residence,

The 150 Franklin. We didn't have a manager's meeting.

We never had a chance of knowing each other.

There were no social activities. A friend told me, "You are
lucky to live in a TODCO building" as she saw painters
painting Mendelsohn House she said, "I live in a senior house
for years and it is never repainted."

TODCO's 85 units of affordable senior housing are a
blessing.

Please let TODCO build them now. We need

more affordable senior housing to house many seniors

on the Housing Authority's waiting list.

Construction always brings noise and disturbance

but this is also progress.

It means our city

is moving forward.

We all benefit.

by Mari / PNN Youth in the Media intern

Every night while I am sleeping someone comes to check and see if I am in my room. This happens about three or four times per night. I live in a transitional living program for houseless youth between the ages of 18 and 23, and every night between the hours of 12 a.m. – 6 p.m. my room gets checked several times. My transitional living program is a place that helps houseless youth get back on their feet so that they won't ever become houseless again. They teach us money management skills, life skills, how to type a housing resume, how to get a credit report, and many other skills that will help us transition into adulthood. No one who lives there is violent. The reason why I know this is because if someone was even a slight threat to someone else who lived there they would get kicked out that day.

My own supervised "housing" situation rushed through my mind when Tiny, co-editor at POOR Magazine, told me the story of a youth named Gary Avila. Within one month of turning 18, Avila pleaded guilty to being a "gang member" in possession of a gun, and although this is a really low classified crime he was sentenced to two years in a state prison. After his first night in Wasco State Prison, he was found dead the next morning, with a bloody bed sheet looped around his neck.

His cellmate, Paul Posada, allegedly confessed to causing the death of Avila. Based on a cursory review of Posada and Avila's records, prison officials decided that Posada and Avila were a good match as cellmates. If prison officials did a background check they would have seen the confidential prison documents, interviews, court records, and medical records showing that Posada might be a threat and should be in cell by himself. Prison officials might have violated California state prison policies by placing Avila in Posada’s cell.

"This happens too often around the country...this is not productive for society," said Fela Thomas from the Youth Force Coalition, whom I contacted to get an expert opinion on this case. Thomas said this case "is just basically another manifestation of the criminal justice system not rehabilitating, but just locking people up. "

I asked Thomas to relate the upcoming Proposition 21 California Supreme Court’s decision, to this case. This decision could overturn Prop 21 ( a proposition that allows youth to be tried as adults) because it has more than one provision, or the court could decide that just one part of Prop 21, the section that allows youth to be tried as adults should be taken out, or the California Supreme Court could just decide to leave Prop 21 the way it is.

Bay area youth organizers went to the Prop 21 hearing in Los Angeles, on December 5, 2001. One of the lawyers there had stated that 25 percent of Prop 21 targets adults. He stated that a certain part of Prop 21 was written about sex offenders. This is interesting considering most sex offenders are adults, while their victims are usually youth. Another lawyer stated that in California the juvenile justice system used to be for youth 21 and under.

Avila committed a low-level crime. He should have not been sent to prison. He could have been put on house arrest, probation, or something else. When I was in high school, you had to be down with a gang, clique, or you would have no protection. I myself had friends who were in a gang, but never did gang bang. Some people don't realize that in some communities you do what you gotta do to survive, or you might not even know a different way to escape your situation. Sometimes when someone is part of a gang there are certain things they do to be recognized as being a part of that gang. Avila had friends who were in gangs, but he was not part of any gangs.

I wonder how this youth could die on his first night in jail? He was only 18 years old. He was only three years younger than I. How could there be no prison officials making their rounds to make sure that everything was alright. This young man was found dead the next day. Why weren't the prison officials doing their job? Why is MY room checked 3 or 4 times a night? Why was Avila's cell not checked?

by Isabel Estrada/PNN Youth in the Media Intern

It was my third day in Middle School. I remember walking into the classroom with my friend. She was my friend because we were both coming into sixth grade at a k-8 school where everybody else knew each other. There was one chair open at the popular girls’ table. I know it both rushed through our minds. Either we could leave the other girl to sit alone and dash to that coveted chair or we could stay together and make our own unpopular girl table. Before I could decide, my friend had already moved. I couldn't feel too betrayed because I probably would have done the same thing.

I felt in my stomach the agony of pulling out the chair as everybody stared at me. My feelings quickly transformed into a tremendous urge to throw up. I sat down slowly. The sound of the zipper on my backpack ripped through my ears. I clenched my jaw in an effort to hold back the tears as I set my new binder down on the huge, empty table surrounded by five empty chairs. I refused to lower my head like my friends might have done. It was even worse because I was right next to the boys. Throughout the whole class everybody would be able to observe the contrast between their rambunctious laughter and my complete silence.

I cringed every time the teacher called on me because then the whole class would turn away from their conversations to peer at me and my empty chairs, from their full tables. I hated when the school librarian or a child from another class would come in to deliver a message. You could see the questions in their eyes. What’s wrong with her? Why is she sitting all alone?

These are the first memories that come to my mind when I think of school. I can imagine how Katie Sierra, a sophomore at Sissonville High School might have felt being openly threatened by her classmates simply because she held different views from them and because she expressed them openly.

After the events on September 11th, while the majority of teachers and students at Sissonville High stand behind George W. Bush and his war Katie was voicing her anti-war stance. She was suspended from school by Principle Forrest Mann for three days for passing out flyers for an anarchy club and she was told that she wasn't allowed to wear t-shirts with anti-war and anti-Bush messages.

One shirt that Katie wore stated "When I saw the dead and dying Afghani children on TV, I felt a newly recovered sense of national security. God Bless America". Many students responded by signing another t-shirt that one boy wore to school that read, "Go Back Where You Came From".

A local judge ruled against her claims of free speech, stating that this right is not absolute in a school setting. I can’t imagine a more ridiculous statement but perhaps that is because I grew up in San Francisco. I have always taken it for granted that school is precisely the place where you speak openly and debate issues you do not agree on. How else are students supposed to learn analytical thinking skills? Or is the question, in times of war, whether or not we are supposed to learn how to think?

When I spoke to John Leanos, a teacher at School of the Arts
High School, where I graduated last year, he said that having anarchist tendencies himself, his approach to a student like Katie Sierra would be to provide a space for discussion and to encourage students to read and get to know information from a different perspective. He believes that debate is especially important since mainstream media has in essence tried to "monopolize perspective". The corporate media is constantly reminding the American people that, in Leanos’ words, "You’re either with us or against us. They like to make it seem unpatriotic to question our system when in fact questioning is an important aspect of our constitutional right to Freedom of Speech."

The United States is famous for it’s hypocrisy. While our government and the mainstream media love to blame other regimes for restricting freedom, the Taliban included, our schools are allowed to suspend a 15-year-old girl for attempting to start an anarchy club in her high school, and are also allowed to prohibit her from wearing anti-war t-shirts.

The other day at POOR Magazine’s community newsroom we were discussing the fact that the Taliban still beheads people. Well, the United States still electrocutes people, and has viewing rooms so that people can watch. The Taliban does not make use of the American due process of law for those on trial, but then again neither does the United States justice system. Two examples are in the cases of Leonard Peltier and Mumia Abu-Jamal. Peltier was denied his rights because he was targeted by the FBI and Abu-Jamal because he was targeted by the Philadelphia Police Force.

>When I spoke to another POOR writer, Gretchen Hildebran, she told me of how in the ninth grade at her high school in Vermont, she along with two other girls and one boy were put in a debate in front of the entire school, pitted against a group of three boys and one girl, all of whom were seniors. They were debating the state’s equal rights amendment.

While Gretchen’s team had been prepared by a levelheaded history teacher, the opposing team was headed by a reactionary Science teacher. Once in front of the school, as Gretchen’s team started to argue points about the issue, the senior boys started yelling at them and calling them sluts and bitches. Soon many of the students watching joined in as well. Gretchen went into that debate an energetic teenage girl ready to fight for what she believed in and left completely defeated. She wouldn't involve herself in any more school activities for the rest of high school.

Similarily I entered into a huge fog of depression for the rest of Middle School. In this case it was unfortunate that I refused to give up and go to another school. But now, at 18 years of age, I am here working at POOR Magazine and those experiences are just another part of my life that I can use as material for my writing. I don’t know how Katie Sierra will handle her challenges, but hopefully she will also turn it into something positive. We’re still following her.

I never did lower my head all the way.

by Aldo Arturo Della Maggiora

A high, rocky mountain encircled a small parking lot where I went every Monday afternoon to pick up my taxi cab medallion as well as a yellow taxivan that is ramp (disability) accessible. Prior to September 11 (the attack on the World Trade Center ) I received an occasional "ramp" call from the Federal Building in San Francisco.

Poncho was one of my regular passengers at the Federal Building. He is a lightbrown-skinned Puerto Rican, tall and well dressed. His legs could not support the normal functions of walking and standing. He would always need a ride to his residence, which was in the "avenues" of SF . Our trips where filled with interesting conversation about his experiences in the army. Poncho would go on expressing how war was an ugly thing that no one should have to experience.

The Monday following September 11, I went back to work. Our country was on high alert and police where all about the city. FBI agents along with the SF Police Department surrounded the Federal Building. The atmosphere was thick with fear, and anger. There were hardly any Middle Easterners in sight. I myself am of Salvadoran and Italian decent. Black hair and eyebrows complement my brown skin; I pass as a Middle Easterner. In the back of my mind I wondered if I would pick up a passenger who would target me as an "enemy terrorist".

As I was driving, I received a message on my computer system (DDS) for ramp pickup at the Federal Building. I parked my ramp van across the street from the Federal Building. Within a quarter of a second I noticed a black tinted SUV emblazoned with the large white letters FBI parked in the ally way 15 yards ahead of me. Two agents in black thick military gear sat in the car. I noticed them before they became aware of me. I did not want to draw attention to myself. They watched me as I opened the side door and slid out the ramp in preparation for Poncho. As I crossed the street to pick up Poncho, the two agents got out of their vehicle and in a low, threatening voice one of the agents yelled in my direction, "Hey!"

The streets were empty, my back was to them and I began to feel uncomfortable with the tone of their voice. I did not like to be spoken to in such an accusing way, so I did not answer them. If an issue existed with my van being parked in front of the Federal Building they should have spoken to me while I was preparing the ramp van. One of the agents responded to my resistance, more forcefully, "Hey... you can’t leave your cab unattended here!"

I acknowledged his gaze and responded, attempting to match his aggression without matching his tone."I have a ramp pickup here at the Federal Building," I responded calmly

"You’ll have to do your pick up on the south side of the building!" he yelled out finally. The situation stalemated. The frustrated agent fixed his eyes on me with a subtle look of vengeance. Refusing to react to his provocative attitude, I went around the building to the south side. As I picked up my passenger I noticed there was another black SUV filled with FBI agents who said nothing to me. As I entered Bobby Hutton Park in West Oakland last week to attend the Community Speakout on Terrorism , I thought about my many experiences of racial and cultural profiling as an Arab-looking taxi driver in this post 9-11 American reality.

Little Bobby Hutton Park , December 8th

People gathered, light fog dusted the air and palm trees swished in the background. There were dried up trees with their thick trunks rooted through a large grass field at Little Bobby Hutton Park (named after the former Black Panther) in West Oakland. A small but growing crowd gathered for a speakout on terrorism. The event was sponsored by People’s Resistance Against US Terrorism, Western Region United Front to Free All Political Prisoners, Black August Organizing Committee, Prisoner’s Rights Union, Justice for Palestinians, Task Force to Save the Life of Mumia Abu Jamal, The Islamic Khemite Nation, David Wong Committee, and Barrio Defense Committee.

The purpose of the speakout was to address the issue of the anti terrorist bills that have been targeting Middle Easterners and other people of color. The guest speakers included Yusef Endure and Tarek Elaydi who were going to address the so-called war on terrorism that exists in the Ashcroft US of today.

The deep voice of Yusef Endure, of People’s Resistance Against US Terrorism brought presence to his topic. "Poor, Middle Easterners, dark-skinned people are being targeted due to Sept. 11. At least 6 Middle Easterners have been murdered, Muslim Mosques have been bombed, immigrants have lost their jobs, i.e. airline baggers and checkers. The anti terrorism bills are targeting immigrant students particularly Middle Easterners trying to obtain student visas. These new terrorism laws are fascist and people are losing their civil liberties. Over 600 people have been in federal custody, most of them are of Middle Eastern decent and without any witness people can be tried and killed behind close doors."

Mr. Endure continued, "Attorney General Ashcroft has interrogated 5000 people of Middle Eastern descent. Anti-terrorism laws allow our government to tap phones lines, check bills, and look up bank records, the INS, FBI, and CIA are targeting folks who may fit the terrorist "image" and are killing people. Yusef pointed out that the danger in the anti- terrorist laws is that innocent people may be mistaken as terrorists. This law makes witch hunts legal."

"The US war on terrorism claims to protect the people of our nation when the truth is, Osama Bin Ladin has been financed by the CIA to defeat the old Soviet rival. Over 100,000 casualties of war occurred in Guatemala as a result of American Death squads, here in the United States 35,000 people are on death row."

Yusef continued, "Marshall law is carried out to create new markets of defense that may be used to control the masses from protesting, sit-ins, and organizing." He concluded, "Our nation must expose the errors of this government by building movements in our communities i.e. schools, PTA, students, workers, and be heard to address these issues before America falls apart." As the people in the crowd listened intently, a sense of community rippled through us all.

The next speaker, Tarek Elaydi, who was born in Palestine came up to the microphone, his strong, dark, eyebrows and piercing black eyes told stories of bloodshed, resistance, and freedom.. Growing up in a refugee camp he witnessed the frustration of his people wanting change and experiencing the brutality of the military occupation that has killed and humiliated many Palestinians. " The passing of anti-terrorist laws target Muslims and Middle Easterners who are of all races." Tarek pointed out that since Sept. 11, Middle Easterners have not been allowed to learn how to fly. Many employees of the San Francisco International Airport who reside in the local Brisbane area have been laid off work for being targeted as terrorist.

Tarek made parallels between the military occupation in Palestine and how he saw similar patterns of military occupation beginning to surface in this country i.e. the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridge.

After the last speaker made his closing remarks the crowd was lively—we were speaking to each other—speaking and understanding this so-called "war on terrorism" and realizing it was really more of a "war on people of color".