Story Archives 2002

by Joe B.

Is it me or did the world experience a global "glad this year's over, let's move on" feel to the end of 2001?

The two good things are 'Select President G.W. Bush showed grit over the bombing but between Mr. Att. Gen. Ashcroft's "Patriot Bill" for our alphebet law enforment to overdose on wiretapping every phone in "free america" and controlling the CyberNet virtual world.

A Global Gasp eminated is heard from America and all countries affected had a harsh wake up call we're still reeling from.

People wanted to so leave 2001 because of Sept. 11th that we may forget what prompted the tragedy in the first place and that the danger is still waiting. Vice 'Prez D. Cheney, could be in some high- tech hospital hidden bunker, getting a pacer upgrade or replaced with a better model.

Our 80's-90's-00 rocket-to-future, breakneck, quick, planned obsolete speed-of Life andE-Business etiquette has slowed because of that imfamous date making us pause, think, reflect, and for many take stock of our harried lives. I hope we continue thinking and re-
flect and not move on too quickly.

I hope 2002 is the Year Of S-L-O-W. That is resting up from last years upheaval at least for a few weeks.

That's it, no heavy messages, nothing dire, or pressing for now even though there are still problems to solve, people to help, and memes dead, dying, or reformed and reborn.

I don't know about you readers out there but I am weary so I'll let you gripe and moan for a bit.

Tell me what's happened last year or what you want to happen this year apon us. Take care, be safe, and think... Bye.

Please donate what can to
Poor Magazine or

C/0 Ask

Joe at 255 9th St.

Street , San Francisco, CA. 94103 USA

For Joe only my snail

mail: PO Box 1230 #645

Market St. San Francisco,

CA. 94102

E-mail: ask joe@poormagazine. org

by Joe B.

A commercial is running with trucks, snow and happy working people last year.

Who would've ever thought that carrying the mail by foot or car would be a heroic act.

That’s what happens when U.S. Postal workers, innocently doing their jogs openning mail [normally bare handed] die from opening mail laced with the Anthrax powder.
[I tried working as a mail carrier but couldn’t pass the address-to-map directions-you know the most efficent way of getting to and from areas in the time al owed or matching zip and codes I think.]

I always felt like an idiot because I could never get those damn things right.

Looking back my rotten sense of direction may have saved my life! God’s protection of fools, fate, luck, a fluke of diving providence, I’ve no idea but its great to still be breathing even with my faulty sense of direction.

You shouldn’t die from doing such a vital though to many of us would seem a mundane chore.

I am sure their families, friends, and most American certainly see them as unsung heroes in the wake of 9/11/01 tragedies.

In 1988 a movie "Working Girl" starred Harrison Ford, Melanie Griffith, Sigourney Weaver, Alec Baldwin, Joan Cusack, others I don't remember.

Anyway the"Let The River Run" song was written and sung by Carly Simon.

"W.G. is about a pretty and brainy secretary (M. Griffith) her friend (J. Cusask) S.Weaver, Melanie’s evil, silver tongued, vixen who may or may not have slept her way to the top of her current position of power in a pressure cooker of corporate business.

Then their Harrison Ford playing a cool, savy, executive in the same Corporation the three women work in.

The song's original theme was for women in the workplace competing in a man's world.

Its an upbeat, rousing, emotional tune of pride, loss, and keeping your freedom and integrity inspite of all the hardships people go through.

At the start of the firm dark night to dawn and early moring is seen as the audience is treated to an above sea and sky birds-eye sight of New York’s Manhattan skylight and superstructure buildings.

All this came to mind as I heard the familiar soundtrack from the Movie.

I kept hearing it but always missing the promo for the music then realized Ms. Simon may have have give her consent to U.S.P.S. (The United States Postal Service)
The public service announcement shows postal employee’s doing their jobs inspite of these new dangers showing them in a new heroic light - in the wake of the death of these postal employee’s anthrax tainted letters that caused illness, near fatal, and fatalities of stricken postal workers.

Maybe there is nothing wrong on its face honoring fallen workers but still it’s a bit confusing when one knows the origin of this from a movie about a woman doing her best and if she fails she’d have to suck-it-up and find another into the business route.

I expect the late ["Freddy Mercury"] lead singer of England’s Super band "Queen" will be heard singing "Who Want’s To Live Forever" with video clips of New Yorks World Trade Towers, air traveler’s, then cut to the blue gray smoking hults of the tower’s and bodies all over the ground minus bodies free-falling from the burning buildings?

He might approve given the seriousness but then again the band has their say also they might not want Mr. Mercury’s
used this way; who knows "Under Pressure" with Mr. D. Bowie’s vocals in the background could be better.

I don’t know if I should look or listen to these mixed media messages, spanning different era’s, meanings, now seeming so interchangeable.

It could be there universal hence interchangeable.

Just a few random thoughts for this first month of a new year.

You got questions, answer’s, thoughts, a few mind-bent, unhinged rants… look below. Have a better 2002 ‘cause 2001 is through.

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
E-mail: ask joe@poormagazine.org
PS.As a House-Care Watcher Professional or [H.C.W.P.]

I'm a non drug user, smoker, drinker, pill popper - drug test me anytime.
Light vacuum, no windows or laundry.

Pets have their routine - make a list of walking times, foods, and moods.INFORM FRIENDS, NEIGHBORS, POLICE; IN FACT INVITE THEM TO PERSONALLY SEE ME, ASK QUESTIONS THEN NO MISUNDERSTANDING, MISHAPS OR ACCIDENTS OF IDENTITY CAN HAPPEN.
Prices: $25 a day apartments/flats

$50 a week for 2 to 4 bedroom cottage.
$2000, or $3,000 a month depending on home not area.
$50,000 to $100,000 monthly for certain homes with
7to10 room TO BE TRUSTED EVEN A LITTLE BY THE COMMUNITY MAKES EVERYONE MORE SECURE AND LESS LIKELY TO JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS.All prices are negotiable.

by The Coalition on Homelessness

Things are getting bad for homeless people in San Francisco. It is
pouring rain, and since Christmas is gone and past, the powerfuls’
hearts are turning into stone. Guilliani is now considered a saint
(forget how he recommended pulling children away from their mothers
if they could not do workfare because they had no childcare). Newsom
is running for Mayor on an "anti-homeless because I am a
compassionate man" platform. We got problems:

1) Newsom will be introducing anti-panhandling legislation that
would include medians, parking meters, and any place people wait in
line. This is following the other madness about creating a whole lot
of bureaucracy instead of solutions including homeless department etc.

2) Patrick Hoge did an article on the front page of the
Sunday paper on how San Francisco is looking towards New York to solve homelessness.

3) Check out January 2nd’s editorial page in the
Chronicle. It is a huge piece on why New York is so great in the way
it treats homeless people. We will be sending out our official
position on this soon. New York has over 20,000 shelter beds where
people are institutionalized. Still homeless. Sounds like they
solved this problem. They still have thousands outside.

All these pieces show a lack of investigative journalism. It is hard to
tell the difference between the editorials and the articles. They
push for a particular direction in homeless policy—zero tolerance
without the presence of solutions. No real analysis of the cause of
homelessness. No examination at the issues over time of how it has been handled
by SF over time. No questioning of where homeless people went in New
York. Just "there are no homeless people in Manhattan, Let's be
Manhattan"

Newsom is, as you know, also pushing centralized intake. The
Chronicle is loving this. It is the bureaucracy's dream. More red
tape, a lot of expenditures and homeless people don't benefit at all.

Newsom wants fingerprints. The Chronicle wants photos of each
homeless person. And of course the fuel for the bureaucracy, the
needed and ever cherished "data", data so good it doesn't matter how
much we spend on it. How we love to study poor people. Study them
further into poverty. We now spend $500,000 for centralized intake
for four family shelters. Ouch. That could fund a whole new
program. We spent $12,000,000 for substance abuse centralized intake
and it failed. Meanwhile we have thousands of people on waiting
lists, and lots of lost lives.

The piece also contains a hit on the Coalition on Homelessness. How
we fight for people's right to refuse shelter. This on a rainy day
and all the shelters full.

As you know we all have been working for substance abuse and mental
health treatment on demand, housing, childcare, living wage jobs,
and fair benefits. We also have demanded that until these exist, we
must protect the civil and human rights of those forced to remain on
the streets.

But, the "decision makers" are looking for someone to blame, so they
are blaming homeless people and their organization, the Coalition on
Homelessness.

Please respond to the editorial, and put pressure on the Chronicle.
We are a one-newspaper town, and we need some fair reporting.

e-mail them at letter@sfchronicle.com - you should also send any
letter to the writers as well - their first initial, last name and
sfchronicle.com (Rachel Gordan did the anti-panhandling and Patrick
Hoge the New York model).

Here is the Chronicle editorial:

WE LIKE to think that we're 'The City That Knows How.' And, for the
most part, we deserve our reputation as a community whose spirit is
as distinctive as our spectacular views of San Francisco Bay and the
Golden Gate Bridge.
Yet, as Chronicle staff writer Patrick Hoge recently revealed, San
Francisco trails New York City in helping the homeless.
This is hardly news to any Bay Area residents who have recently
walked the streets of Manhattan, then hopped a plane back home and
found themselves shocked by scenes of homeless men and women living
on the streets of San Francisco.

Anyone who visited Manhattan 10 years ago knows just how much its
streets have changed since New York City expanded its system of
shelters and treatment centers for its homeless population.
Here's what is different in New York City. The city refuses no
homeless person a bed. The centralization of its social services
means that every person who enters the system is registered and
photographed. When a homeless person appears at a different shelter,
outreach workers can quickly decide where the person needs to be
referred.

New York's shelter system, moreover, provides voluntary long-term
treatment for mental illness and substance abuse, two of the major
causes of homelessness. Nearly all of New York City's shelters are
integrated into mandatory, structured, rehabilitative programs. In
addition, the citywide program offers education, counseling and
employment services for those who are able to work.

In contrast, San Francisco's method of helping the homeless can best
be described as disorganized. According to the Chronicle's research,
the city spends approximately $200 million on programs associated
with the homeless -- mostly by subcontracting services to nonprofit
organizations. Without any centralized records, however, the city is
unable to track what services have been given, or what an individual
needs when he or she appears at another shelter.

The problem is not the nonprofits, but rather the lack of
coordination among services. Shelters rarely provide treatment for
mental illness or substance abuse. Nor do they provide the homeless
with counseling, training or work. As a result, San Francisco offers
the homeless revolving-door protection from the elements, but not the
integrated services provided by its East Coast counterpart.
Interestingly, New York and San Francisco have about the same number
living on the streets. New York officials estimate that some 3,000
individuals are living outdoors. A recent census study counted 3,136
homeless in the City by the Bay.

Yet, the amount of money spent on the homeless is dramatically
different. New York's state constitution declares that 'aid, care and
support of the needy are public concerns and shall be provided by the
state and by such of its subdivisions.' Advocates for the homeless
have used this language to force the city to provide shelter and
services for every homeless person. New York State spends $150
million for the city's shelter system alone.

California's Constitution, by contrast, guarantees no such services
to the poor or needy. The state, moreover, spends only $2 million on
San Francisco's homeless programs and gives merely $91 million for
similar services scattered across the state.

The political climate also is vastly different in this city. San
Francisco's Coalition on Homelessness, a nonprofit advocacy group,
has consistently resisted all efforts to track the homeless. Its
position is that such a database would invade the privacy of the
homeless. Nor have homeless advocates tried to force the city to
provide shelter for every homeless person.
Rather, the coalition's view is that the homeless have a right to
refuse shelter.

We disagree. As does San Francisco Supervisor Gavin Newsom, who has
recently taken up the city's homeless problem. In addition to
proposing an independent Department of Homeless Services, Newsom also
wants the city to establish a centralized system that offers
long-term treatment, as well as training and incentives to work.
Unlike other politicians, Newsom doesn't look for a quick fix,
otherwise known as 'cracking down on the homeless.' Crackdowns simply
scatter the homeless to other neighborhoods. They neither help the
homeless nor the urban dwellers who seek safer streets.
To be sure, New York City provides a model of the possible, but
certainly not a blueprint for what will work in San Francisco. Our
goal must be to provide coordinated, integrated services for the
homeless. What's lacking, however, is state funding, as well as the political
will to help the homeless reclaim their lives.
We've said it before: There is nothing moral or just about allowing
people to live on the streets of our city.

by Marcus Green

When I was in school I once talked to a homeless man. He told me that he
had fallen asleep the night before and woke up the following morning with cold
feet. Someone had stolen his shoes. I hope no one steals my shoes if I get
to sleep tonight.

I feel like a Bruce Springsteen song come to life, or maybe Bob Dylan wrote
a tune about me years ago. People who aren’t from Florida imagine it to be
beautiful and sunny year round, but it does get cold here too.

No major mistake got me on the streets of Tallahassee. It was more a series
of small mistakes, which individually meant nothing, but together
spelled out a painful fate for a once-promising young man. I feel like I
was playing one of those pool games where you seem to miss every shot by no
more than a quarter of an inch. I’ve been close, very close, but at the end
of the night I am still the loser.

I think the hardest part of being where I am is, first of all, the way
people look at me, or rather don’t look at me. It is as if by not looking they can
avoid me asking for money, or pretend that they didn’t hear me beg because
I’m hungry. I wouldn’t ask them for money.

Harder still are the memories. Memories of jobs that I took for granted haunt me. The jobs I had while I was still in school could at least feed me, but I was too good for those
jobs. I had a future. "Sure I can go out and miss work tonight. It’s a
shit job anyway." I was going to be something someday.

Memories of the girls that I let go for no good reason at all haunt me now. Just one of
them to hold would make these nights so much more bearable. Some were so
sweet, they might have stuck with me, even all the way down here. When I
had them, I could let them go so easily. But, those were better days, back
when we had it all figured out, when I used to throw people the way people now throw me a dime.

The cold hurts. It’s so fucking cold. I think someone said it was in the
teens. It snowed today. It was cold but nice. It only snows here every ten
years. It was nice.

I can’t even tell right now if I miss people or the times that I used to
have with them. I did have great times, once upon a time. If I saw someone now that
I knew then, what would I do? I would love to speak to them,
remember old times, and hear of how great they are doing now. But how could
I possibly let them know that this is what’s become of me. As Jacob Marley
surely felt, I would fear telling my friends of my fate and their possible
fate. The cold hurts.

Of course there are programs for people like me around here, but once the
hope is gone it’s gone. No matter what programs The Shelter or The Mission
offer, they just don’t seem to offer what I need. The job programs at those
places do promise work, but what would that mean. Meals more often, yes,
but what else. There is no more hope for that "American Dream."

The
idea of a wife and 2.5 kids surrounded by a nice white picket fence just
isn’t going to happen to me. If I did have that option right now, how would
that feel? At least now my only worries are food to keep me alive, and
staying warm enough to breathe. After knowing that I am capable of surviving at depths
like these, how could I possibly accept the responsibility of caring for
others? What if my history of choices led me right back here? I couldn’t
possibly bring others into the abyss of me. I need hope and it’s just not
there.

What horrible thoughts. The cold hurts.

I smoke. People see me and are disgusted. How could a man hungry for food
possibly spend any money on cigarettes? Well, it’s simple. They bring me
comfort, sometimes more comfort than food. The warm feeling of smoke in my
lungs helps warm me. Standing by a fire, even if it is just the fire of a
smoke, makes me think of warmth. Besides all of that, a man in a white
Chevy pickup gave me this particular cigarette, so, piss off judgemongers.

I sit here on this convenience store sidewalk looking at the people walking in
to buy gas, buy smokes, or buy beer. I remember when I was on the other side,
when I was the one looking down into the eyes of the hopeless, seeing eyes
of despair glaring up. When I was on that side, everyone I looked down to
on the sidewalk would look back up. But now, from the sidewalk very few look
my way.

I just noticed a reflection in a window, such a bitter and hateful face. I
remember my own reflection. It was nice, kindhearted. I was shocked to
find out, when I went into a restroom, that the bitter face was probably my
own. Somewhere between the cold and poverty my face learned to display
bitterness rather than the compassion that I remember from my youth. I
never thought myself a bitter person, but in retrospect I can see the
gradual shift in my personality. Again, it was no major event, as the
movies would have you believe. It happened slowly.

At one time, I could
listen to anyone’s problems for hours for the simple reason that I believed
that it made their life easier to unload their problems on someone who would
listen. Now, that face I see in reflections tells a story of hatred, a
story of bitter despair, a story that has no time for other stories, a face
that is cold. A face that has no time for problems, not even its own.

Speaking of my problems, I’ve got one now. It’s late. A big problem
is finding a safe place to sleep. There are shelters here in Tallahassee, but they are crowded. I think I may have a
solution for the night. A simple place to lean. Sleeping with my feet
folded under me, my shoes just might be safe.

by Staff Writer

Disabled Ebonics Tour is the brain child of two, talented, extraordinary, Black, disabled poets\activists, Leroy Franklin Moore, Jr. and Samuel Irving. Disabled Ebonics Tour’s goal is to display a small part of the artistic and political voice of the Black, disabled community through a mixture of spoken word, story telling, and lectures, while adding a very important voice to this year’s Black History Month.

Leroy and Samuel believe their Black, disabled brothers and sisters have lived and are still living under harsh conditions and discrimination, but like a rose between the sidewalks, they are blossoming and spreading their beauty in all arenas including the arts. Disabled Ebonics Tour will be taking place around the Bay Area, where Leroy resides, and in Portland, Oregon, where Samuel resides. They are both authors and motivating speakers

Leroy and Samuel met on the Internet thanks to POOR Magazine’s on-line magazine; http://www.poormaagazine.org where Leroy pens a column entitled Illin-n-Chilln
.

Leroy is the Founder and Executive Director of Disability Advocates of Minorities Organization (DAMO) of San Francisco. He has traveled all over the country and the United Kingdom sharing his perspectives on identity, race and disability, through his lecture series On the Outskirts: Race & Disability. In 2000 Leroy self published his first chapbook Black Disabled Man with Big Mouth and a High I.Q.with editorial and design expertise from POOR Magazine. Leroy has a new chapbook For the Ladiesedited and designed by James Tracy of the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness.

Samuel Irving is a man with many talents-and challenges. However, in his own mind he is simply a poet. Named Poet of the Year in 1998 and 1999 by Famous Poet Society, his first book of poetry Quiet in a Storm received initial acclaim from a variety of critical sources. His new book Open Meditationswill be released this spring.

He is known in local business circles and the faith community around Portland. Irving was instrumental in founding and operating Kimbro Kidds, a nonprofit organization, which teaches entrepreneurship to youth who are from 7 to 13 years of age. He volunteers numerous hours presenting poetry workshops in schools and hospitals, helping children understand the healing powers of poetry. His "poetic medicine" workshops offer participants limitless possibilities for creative expression.

Dis-Ebonics
The Other Brother: Disabled Ebonics Tour

DATES & PLACES

Places in the Bay Area- Leroy Moore

1)Feb. 6th KQED Reception for Local Hero Awards, San Francisco

2) Feb. 14th POOR Magazine The Po’ Poets Project Featured Speaker/ Workshop Facilitator at 10am. 255 9th Street (@Folsom), San Francisco

3) Feb. 11th (6:00 pm) at Erna P. Harris Community Room 1330 University Ave, Berkeley

4) Feb. 8th @7:00pm at Modern Times Bookstore, Valencia St, San Francisco

5) Feb. 15th on KPOO radio in San Francisco

6) Feb. 9th at Oakland Library, Oakland (2-4pm)

7) Feb 13th,(@8:00 pm) Java House,Oakland/ph (510) 836-5282

8) Feb 16th DAMO’s Breaking the Silence Event at the San Francisco Main Library

Dates and locations in Portland:

February 18 at Emotions

February 19 at One Night

February 20 at Springfield High School

February 21 at Love Jones

February 22 at Reflections Book Store

February 23 Multnomah Library

(yet to be confirmed)

Powell's Books

90.7 KBOO

For dates and places or to book Dis-Ebonics The Other Brother: Disabled Ebonics Tour call, mail or e-mail Leroy c/o

Disability Advocates of Minorities Organization, DAMO

820 Valencia St.

San Francisco, CA. 94110

Leroy@ (510) 649-8438 or Samuel @ (503) 233-7225

E-mail:sfdamo@Yahoo.com

DAMO’ s Web site: www.sfdamo.freeservers.com

by Leroy Moore

January is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday and as a Black, disabled activist\writer, I’ve turned to MLK’s incredible book Why We Can’t Wait, on the birth of the Black Revolution in Birmingham, Alabama in which he explains why African Americans could not wait any longer.

Disability Advocates of Minorities Organization (DAMO) is standing on the message of this book to inspire the birth of the Disabled People of Color Revolution. DAMO will be introducing their Breaking the Silence & Organizing Campaign, funded by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, during a press conference around Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday. The passion, determination, and leadership of MLK, Jr.’s work and his book Why We Can’t Wait should be our guiding light, our strength, and our faith, for our future, reminding us why, as disabled people of color, we can’t wait.

DAMO, like Martin Luther King, Jr., has also realized that the media is essential to bring awareness to the masses about the lives, struggles, and accomplishments of disabled people of color. In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., "Without the help of the media, the voices of African Americans will always be muddled and change will be very, very slow, causing our people to release their pent up anger in violent ways." I like to say that today we, disabled people of color, have connected with local media and our beautiful light will enlighten our community.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once wrote: "In order to be somebody, people must feel themselves part of something." This is one of the main reasons why DAMO is here.
DAMO was established in 1998 and is a grassroots organization for and by disabled and non-disabled people of color. We’ve been in existence for almost five years. DAMO’s mission is to represent and promote the welfare and the equalization of opportunities concerning people of color with disabilities through the encouragement and development of education, artistic expression, self-advocacy training, community organizing, networking and consulting. This is our revolution, our organization, and our time to tell people why we can’t wait any longer and to take action with our own hands.

Today, DAMO and I have some reasons why disabled people of color can’t wait and why disabled grassroots organizations of color are long overdue. Over the past thirty years, California’s population has undergone a tremendous shift in its racial and ethnic distribution. The 1990 US census clearly points out that the population of people of color in California has out numbered the White population. According to organizations for and by individuals with disabilities and the 1998 report from the National Council on Disability, the disabled population in California has an over representation of disabled people of color.

With these two facts you might think that California would have many organizations run by and for disabled people of color, but until very recently this was not the case!

Although California is the home of the Independent Living Movement and has a rich history with the disability rights movement, until recently there were no organizations for and by disabled people of color. Because of this, many disabled people of color have been left outside of the disabled rights movement, especially the Independent Living Movement to deal with the concept of race and disability. During the Black civil rights movement, leaders realized that institutional power was essential to the movement. To carry out their messages they created their own organizations like the NAACP and the Urban League.

The same is true for the disabled people of color movement here in California. The new disabled people of color movement has formed newly state-wide and community-based organizations , like the Harambee Educational Council, the Asian Pacific Islanders with Disabilities Organization, and Disability Advocates of Minorities Organization. But they are still struggling to stay alive while traditional disabled organizations suck up resources, money, and media attention.

Today Americans with disabilities have laws on the books to deter discrimination and bring disabled Americans into mainstream society—the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Individual Disability Education Act of 1975, and now the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Like Martin Luther King, Jr. realized in 1963, DAMO has realized in 2002 that very little has changed for disabled people of color since the signing of these laws. This is why today, on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, we are calling on our disabled brothers and sisters of color and our allies to help us in this campaign, and then the revolution. We, disabled Californians of color, are playing catch up and need a platform from which we can educate and organize. DAMO is that platform.

This year Americans will be celebrating the 12th birthday of the Americans with Disabilities Act, what disabled Americans call Independence Day. But, as a Black, disabled man, Independence Day is still far away. On July 26, 1990 President Bush turned to the four White, disabled activists sitting beside him and proclaimed, "Let the shameful wall of exclusion come tumbling down." However, disabled people of color are far behind our White, disabled colleague in every arena—only one Black of working age in every forty is a college graduate. The rate among non-disabled Blacks is just 29 percent of the rate among disabled Whites. The unemployment rate among disabled people of color is in the high nineties.

According to a paper published in October of 1995 entitled Disability Among Racial & Ethnic Groups, from the Disability Statistics Rehabilitation Research & Training Center at University of California, at San Francisco
the overall rate of disability in the U.S. population is 19.4 percent. The total number of disabled people of color make up 67.1 percent of the population nationally.

From what I stated above, it makes sense that DAMO is here but we need more grassroots organizations run for and by disabled people of color especially in California. We also need financial and community support for organizations, like the ones I mentioned, that are performing incredible work on boot string budgets. Communities of color are in desperate need of education, empowerment, and advocacy on rights, services, history, talents, and other issues that touch disabled people of color by disabled people of color. DAMO’s Breaking the Silence and Organizing Campaign will do just that and more but we need you to get involve.

The only way we, disabled people of color, can educate our communities, show our talents and solve our problems is to come together and organize and speak our stories. Disabled people of color face racism, sexism, disablism, heterosexism, and classism, so yes, we have a lot to battle with but we must come out and organize because nobody will do it for us. Our youth deserve to feel part of something.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said "Oppressed people cannot stay oppressed forever." This is true as today we see Disabled people of color are organizing in London, England, Brazil and in South African to name a few. Disabled people of color in California, the Bay area and all over the US, it is our turn! Happy B-Day Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and thank you! For more information on DAMO’s upcoming press conference and their Breaking the Silence Campaign call Leroy Moore at (510) 649-8438 or visit Leroy’s column Illin-N-Chillin at www.poormagazine.org.

by Joe B.

It’s baaac, in Moscone Center in San Franciso and Las Vagas.

Innovative soft/hardware, or the short version "New Tech stuff" for the mass consumers.

Mechanisms gets smaller, faster, supposedly more efficient chip power squeezed in less space.

To bad humans still stagger around, beat their laptop keyboards when someone points out glitches in their software programs case in point.

A young, 19 year old, Utah College student who's learned the “DO THE RIGHT THING” lesson / mantra last Thursday calls AOL AOL, (America On Line) warns them of a security kink in their system.

He (Mr. Matt Conover, one of the w00w00 founders of the “World’s largest nonprofit security with more than 30 members in about nine countries.”[his/their words.] sent out a report of a flaw in AOL’s AIM (America Online Instant Messenger) Once contacted AOL fixed its problem but instead of thanking the members an AOL spokesmen (Mr. Andrew Weinstein) critizied the group for failing to give AOL more time before announcing their problem publicly.

There seems to be a disconnect in that Mr. Conover told AOL about a problem that all their brilliant programmer, software designers, engineers didn’t see or were too busy getting it up and running to notice.

I think they (AOL) is ticked off because they didn’t see the bug and instead of saying "Way Cool Dudes" they publicly bash w00w00 for the good deed.

w00w00 showed itself as a lawfull Web Secure Co. by warning AOL of an error it may pay for its short sightedness when w00w00 lets a worse glitch go by and hackers have their fun.

“A” will bung it up again with that attitude and no one may ring an alarm of another foul-up.

The w00w00 folks are our future and it looks bright even if “W0” disbands, splits, reforms or stays together it shows how weak Big old AOL and others like them really are.

These young men and woman are college students yet AOL out of hand didn’t take a moment to think it as a possiblity.

To me the future is in good hands, just don’t listen to so called experts because they don’t really know, setting arbitrary limits then say that’s it – limits are made to be broken.

Tech innovations in San Francisco and Las Vagas works only when new ideas, ways , thinking, seeing is tested and excepted; AOL should think of those facts instead of being pissed of that their fallible mortals it takes lest energy than angry bluster.

That’s how we human’s grow, advance, and evolve… Bye.

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