Story Archives 2003

by Tiny

But it is an emergen…” The last part of my sentence was cut off by the saliva draining into my throat at a rate of several quarts per second.

“No, Miss Garcia, I don’t think so…” The admitting clerk mistook my choking pause for uncertainty, and started shaking her head from side to side while she filled the silence with her persistent rant: “We can only see you if it is a life-threatening emergency, and of course that is only if there is no other ‘county’ emergency room available.”

‘I’m…tell…ing…you…I can’t…breathe…It is an emer…”

She was still shaking her head. I managed to spit out one last sentence. “Can you ask your sup…ervis…or?”

She made a small snort of frustration and/or confusion and walked away.

I hadn’t had an asthma attack quite this bad in several months. After my last one I vowed never to go to an emergency room again. This was because of my experience of what I call “hellth care” – sitting in a county hospital emergency room for no fewer than 16 hours before receiving treatment.

Illness, unfortunately, is an untamable beast which strikes unexpectedly and when you are least prepared. For poor people, that is always.

But this day started simply. The sun was cool and flat. Mountain and ocean breezes from opposite ends of the sky collided in the San Francisco atmosphere. And then, all of sudden, a bit of fresh pollen and several hundred wayward dust mites entered my nose and mouth.

It began as just a difficulty breathing and turned into a monstrous cough/wheeze. At that point, logic and all other normal thoughts disappeared in adrenaline-fueled terror and extreme states of anxiety.

I walked into the emergency room of a hospital owned by Catholic Healthcare West, a private non-profit corporation, and began an odd sort of battle to prove how ill I really was.

The supervisor returned with the admitting clerk 20 minutes later. The clerk was still shaking he head, in a permanent state of no.

“Miss Garcia, we will admit you this time but…” The supervisor’s voice was loud and smashed through the glass window between us “…because you have no insurance we will have to bill you.”

I thought this was a strange comment from the admitting nurse’s supervisor, but somehow it meant I could be considered an “emergency.”

“But I have no money to pay a bill…”

I attempted to spit out one last retort, but they had stopped listening. Eventually, I got care. I saw the doctor for four minutes, was hooked up to a breathing machine for 10 minutes and received a prescription for an inhaler. Two weeks later I received a bill for several hundred dollars.

Despite the growing numbers of medially uninsured San Franciscans, The City’s three largest private hospitals (Catholic Healthcare West’s St. Mary’s Medical Center and St. Francis Memorial Hospital and Sutter Health’s California Pacific Medical Center) reduced their charity care spending by almost 16 percent during the past four years.

Presented at a recent Board of Supervisors hearing were results of a study by the Service Employees International Union. In 1998, the three hospitals spent less than half of 1 percent of their revenues on charity care – approximately one-sixth the national average for tax-exempt hospitals. Together, these hospitals control more than half The City’s licensed hospital beds.

In exchange for receiving millions of dollars in tax breaks, tax-exempt hospitals are expected to provide charitable services to poor and uninsured patients.

Their tax breaks include exemptions from property and income taxes, access to tax-free bonds issued through government agencies and access to tax-deductible donations from the public.

To avoid the unjust treatment of thousands of indigent patients by these so-called “non-profit” institutions, the City and County of San Francisco should require that hospitals:

>Meet minimum charity-care spending standards of at least 3 percent of net patient revenues or contribute any shortfall to pay for the cost of charity-care services at county and other major providers of free care.

>Provide patients with adequate notice that charity care is available.

>Use uniform charity-care applications, eligibility criteria, and appeals procedures.

>Publicly disclose charity-care policies and expenditures.

Then, perhaps, there will be a clear distinction between a medical emergency and a financial emergency.

by Lynda Carson

Oakland CA-Despite the passage of Oaklands new rent
law Measure EE which went into effect on December 27,
2003, some landlords choose to blatantly defy aspects
of the ordinance no matter how well informed they may
be, or pretend to be.

Renters of Effies House at 829 E. 19th Street, are
presently being threatened with demolition crews,
partial evictions, and the threat of illegal
occupations in their homes by their landlord, East
Bay Asian Local Development Corporation, known as
E.B.A.L.D.C.. An Oakland non-profit housing
organization that's been around for nearly 25 years.

The landlord planned to partially demolish 4 of the
rental units in the nearly ninety year old building,
as part of a planned illegal occupation to create 2
new common areas in the building without offering any
sort of compensation to the renters or any sort of
rent reduction. An estimated 35 square foot of space
per rental unit would be lost to each of the renters.

E.B.A.L.D.C., just planned to take what they want from
the renters in full defiance of the renters contracts
and in total violation of every law in the book
pertaining to rental contracts or lease agreements.

E.B.A.L.D.C. was so blatant about abusing the rights
of tenants at Effies House that they never even
attempted to modify the rental agreements before-hand
as a means to try to make it appear to be a legal
take-over of the rental units.

The story first broke in the April Issue of Street
Spirit in an article written by Lydia Gans, and when
the landlord received notice of the article the
planned schedule of the demolition crews were stopped
within 24 hours.

Oakland activist Vivian Haine says that this landlord
is one of the worst around, abusing Oakland Tenants
even if they do offer affordable rents, and people
need to know what these bastards are up to, Haine
said.

E.B.A.L.D.C. manages over 700 rental units, and rents
out nearly 100,000 square foot of commercial retail
space in the East Bay.

Tenant activist Sue Doyle said that some of these
landlords never learn, and that this landlord went way
beyond the norms of some of the worst landlords in
Oakland. Measure EE was passed by the voters to stop
the most blatant sort of abuse by the landlords, but,
some just don't seem to get it and continue to abuse
the renters in spite of the new rent laws, Doyle said.

In addition to the story breaking into public view
during Aprils Street Spirit Issue, Katie Davis the
property manager was informed by one of the tenants
that there was nothing in the written rental agreement
that allowed the landlord to enter the rental units
and occupy them, and that they would be sued if they
followed through with their plans.

The project was immediately halted until a new plan
could be devised, and within a week some renters were
being coerced into signing new addendums to their
contracts that allowed the landlord to claim that
parts of the rental units were no longer a part of the
premises agreed upon in the original rental
agreements. One of those tenants an employee of
E.B.A.L.D.C. (landlord), was called away from his job
to the office of the property manager Katie Davis, and
told to sign an addendum giving up part of his home to
the landlord without any compensation or any deduction
in monthly rental payments. Fearful of losing his job
and home all at once, the tenant immediately signed
the addendum without the advice or presence of an
attorney.

Another tenant advised the property manager that she
would never sign any such agreement to allow the
landlord to occupy her apartment so long as she is
residing there, and on May 14, 2003 received a 30 Day
Notice changing the terms of the tenancy. The notice
stated that the room in question (35 sq foot of space)
would no longer be considered as part of the premises
in the rental agreement, and that the landlord plans
to demolish it for a planned common area.

Not only was this notice considered harassment, but,
the notice is in total violation of Measure EE because
the landlord was informed in advance that the tenant
would not agree to signing an addendum or agree to a
material change in the terms of the existing contract.

Under Measure EE Oakland renters do not have to agree
to changes in their contracts that materially change
the terms of their contracts, and it is unlawful for
landlords to retaliate or harass tenants that refuse
to go along with such far reaching proposals to the
rental agreements.

This feud over the possession of the rental units
started after E.B.A.L.D.C. was notified by the City of
Oakland that the newly built four flights of outside
exterior stairs would not be signed off on because it
blocked access to 2 rental units out of the 6 rental
units needing access to them. The original stairs
allowed access to all 6 rental units before being torn
down due to being unsafe, and $47,853 was spent so far
on the botched stairway project.

As the new stairs were being rebuilt, tenants spoke
out when they noticed that 2 out of the 6 units were
being passed over and blocked by the new stairs.
E.B.A.L.D.C. told the complaining tenants that it was
all perfectly legal and they hired an attorney to go
after any tenants that tried to interfere in the
building of the stairs. One of the complaining tenants
was threatened with eviction by Ed Nagy of the
EVICTORS for interferring with the construction of the
stairs.

When noticed that the City of Oakland would not sign
off on the new stairs that now blocked 2 of the rental
units, the landlord stopped claiming that the stair
project was perfectly legal and started to look for
ways out of the delemma without drawing up new plans
to rebuild the stairs all over again.

A January 6, 2003 meeting took place at Oaklands
Building Department between the landlord, the building
contractor, and city officials of the planning and
building department, in an effort to cover their ass
from this botched project. A leaked memo from the
meeting details how the three parties attempted to
find a solution to the problem, with no tenants being
involved or invited to the meeting.

The leaked memo of January 6, reveals that city
officials Alain Placido and George Wonderly stated
that we could provide access to the blocked units by
either opening a passageway at the dividing walls
between the units, or remove the dividing walls all
together.

Since neither city official Placido or Wonderly ever
looked at the dividing walls in question, the memo
states that George Wonderly (3rd District Building
Inspector of Oakland) asked the contractor about the
dividing walls in question. The memo goes on to reveal
that based upon the description of one of the
contractors, a Francisco Ruiz of Jasper Design and
Construction, Building Inspector George Wonderly
concluded and stated to the group that the dividing
walls in question most likely were built illegaly
without a permit, and could be torn down.

With the problem being neatly solved by city officials
who never bothered to inspect the alleged illegal
dividing walls, E.B.A.L.D.C. quickly proceeded to
harass the tenants into giving up part of their rental
units so that their new plans to partially demolish
and occupy 4 rental units would result in the new
stairs being signed off on by the Building Inspector
George Wonderly.

Weeks later, during a curious call to Wonderly, he
stated that he never bothered to cite the landlord for
code violations for the alleged illegal dividing
walls, and said that this is what the tenants get for
complaining about the stairs.

Meanwhile, E.B.A.L.D.C. is rushing ahead full steam to
demolish their way through any resistance to the new
plan that they hope will result in the signing off of
the stairway project.

Housing activists are outraged by what is occurring at
Effie's House, and hope that by exposing the corrupt
nature of Oakland's Code Compliance Office that city
officials may be able correct the failures of the
system.

Local activists are urging people to be a part of a
phone in protest & join others to call the staff of
E.B.A.L.D.C., in Oakland, to leave a message that the
planned demolitions must stop, no occupations by
management should occur, and that the rights of
renters must always be respected.

The activists also urge the community to contact
Oakland City Council Members to demand an
investigation into what is occurring at Effies House.

Activists urge you to call now, and to call often as
part of the protest during the last 2 weeks of May,
2003.

Call, Property Manager, Katie Davis; Call; 510/5353
ext 528

Call, Executive Director of E.B.A.L.D.C., Lynette Lee;
Call; 510/287-5353 ext 596

For more info, contact; TenantNation@yahoo.com

by Ace Tafoya/PoorNewsNetwork (PNN)

On my way to the Department of Human Services (DHS), I was sitting on the back of the 14 Mission bus with a picket sign that read ‘Shelter For All’ with members of POWER (People Organized to Win Employment Rights), Food Not Bombs, Coalition on Homelessness, the Day Labor Program and other homeless advocate organizations in the city. I was here to re-port and sup-port for PoorNewsNetwork and as a POWER member, I would be part of a staged ‘sit-in’ at the offices of DHS. We were going to Plant ourselves, our furniture and our household items in front of 140 Otis with a message: Trent Rhoehr (DHS’s director) - please don’t mess with us! Our lives are at stake!

With Gavin Newsom trying to conjure up more support for his mayoral race and his Proposition N/Care Not Cash initiative the day before on the steps of City Hall with hundred’s of misinformed people, our protest at the Department of Human Services was simple but effective. Picket signs and chants along with desks, furniture, lamps and plants were boldly placed near the entrance of DHS as we walked in a circular motion.

"(The United States Government) needs to take care of our people first," shouted Facheezee out of the megaphone speaker as we circled around him. "San Francisco, we love you and we’re not going nowhere!" He was referring to Newsom’s Prop. N and shelter expulsions and evictions. Even though Prop N was overturned by Superior Court Judge Ronald Quidachay last week, people are still being evicted from city shelters. People are still receiving eviction notices. 

"We don’t need anyone to tell us what we can do with our money. I’m gonna be in the rich neighborhoods and camping out," Mikal Yasin a new member of POWER told the crowd of about 30. "We want to be treated equally. You need to help everybody. We don’t want your cash, we want the cash we earned!"

I walked around other supporters of our protest with my picket sign waving in the air and pointing at the people looking at us through the windows. We chanted:

Forced shelter

Where’s the care?

Work for $1.84

Where’s the care?

Evicting Immigrants?

Where’s the care?

Fingerprinting

Where’s the care?

The Care’s Not There!

Lafayette Ricks shouted through the megaphone: "We’re here to fight you (DHS) to the bitter end. You’re beating on the poor. The poor will fight ‘til the end," he said sounding like Martin Luther King Jr. Lafayette used his powerful voice to talk about shelter evictions and expulsions and poor people being picked on by DHS and Newsom.

Trent Rhoehr, the director of DHS was no doubt hiding out somewhere in that building. ‘The Lizard’ as Nora from POWER calls him never came out to talk to us. 

"Everyone needs a place to stay. A place to call home," Bernadette Belle told the enthused crowd. "Power to the People!" Andre Rucker added, "Prop N is fascism. Gavin Newsom represents fascism. He represents corporate America."

After our rally, we all huddled together and did our unity clap and I felt a sense of satisfaction that we are making a difference and letting our voices be heard. This fight is far from over. And we will soon be making another appearance somewhere to let these people and politicians know that what DHS is doing is not acceptable!

by PNN's Shelter Correspondent

Thursday Morning TV news, finally daylight

I stretch my aching bones after a night in the homeless shelter

Ah, what’s this I hear? The Homeless in San Francisco

Getting served coffee while waiting for a bed

Who spreads these rumors

I began to question myself

Did not I spend the Night at the Shelter?

The one with the Barricades in the Lobby, Yes I most certainly did

First you have to be buzzed In!

Yeah people stopped jammering and banging on the door

Not because a solution has been found

But because no one was answering the door unless you had a ticket

You ring and ring the bell!

Where am I on this Computer

There are no beds, No such Luck

And I can’t get inside for comfort!

The Rumors they spread!

I guess I have to inhale my coffee

Along with the Cold, Night Air!

by TJ Johnston/PoorNewsNetwork

Mind Freedom-Support Coalition International's weekend of resistance to the mental health orthodoxy in San Francisco culminated in a protest at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association.

Where 19,000 shrinks gathered inside the Moscone Center, some 40 psychiatric survivors (some of whom endured forced "treatment" and labels affixed to them) picketed the APA in a peaceful display of dissidence (as well as dissonance).

The day after co-sponsors Mind Freedom and California Network of Mental Health clients countered with their own conference, organizers David Oaks and Sally Zinman presented an APA rep a list of at least 20 questions. Among them were:

*Why do you insist that the primary treatment is medication, despite research showing that when people do fully recover, drugs are unrelated?

*Why do psychiatrists provide no practical information about how to develop excellent mental health during "mental health month" every May?

*How can you keep your objectivity on treatments when you take money from the pharmaceutical companies?

*Are you aware that some individuals in the USA are receiving involuntary electroshock over their expressed wishes?

Freedom of choice, self-determination and the end of the drug industry's tyranny were the major themes that afternoon. Zinman finds the biologically reductive approach of treating clients as a series of symptoms objectionable. "Good services deal with the whole person," she emphasizes. In stressing the theme of choice, Zinman called out the APA's history of supporting forced treatment at the professional and legislative levels.

In the presence of an SFPD officer, Oaks made sure their rented sound system went to its optimal legal level in order to break the silence on coercive drugging and electroconvulsive therapy. The band of protesters chanted"1,2,3,4, APA is a corporate whore" and "We're crazy, proud and free." It seemed to be characteristic fashion that their chants were off key.

Speakers such as Jessie Lorenz of San Francisco's Independent Living Resource Center exhorted a 1999 Supreme Court Decision "which affirm our right to live in our communities."

As do recovering alcoholics who celebrate each year of sobriety, advocates like Carol Ford commemorate each year where they don't rely on hospitalization. Massachusetts poet Vicki Goldberg also marked the occasion by reading selections from her volume, "I Always Wanted a Pony But Had To Settle For Insanity."

Street Spirit editor Terry Messman condemned the institutionalization of mental health care. Two years ago, his paper printed an expose of the East Bay Hospital's wretched excesses, a dumping ground of nine counties' often poor detainees. When charges of maltreatment and corruption came to light, the hospital was closed.

The phrase "the personal is political" appears to have been updated: the psychological has also become political. It hadn't escaped the organizers' notice that the APA is paid for by drug companies. When the pill makers sponsor studies, observed LA County's director of consume affairs, "ideology is masqueraded as medicine." As a survivor, he has nothing against "normal" people, just because they engage in activities as dropping bombs and genocide. Oaks pushed the metaphor of madness further quoting Dr. Martin Luther King:"Salvation of the world lies in the hands of the maladjusted." Forced medication, to him, is another form of warfare where psych-drugs are WMDs.

In a comic moment, a protester donned a cardboard likeness of psych status quo defender and Bush appointee Sally Satel. To drive home her agenda, a label of "right wing lunatic" was affixed to her and she passed out faux medication. Having achieved putting most of the US on Ritalin, Satel wants to take her medication globally.

I couldn't help but think of Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" at the rally. If APA took on the role of Nurse Ratched, Mind Freedom was cast as R.P. McMurphy (with a bit of Gandhi and MLK thrown in).

by Will Emerson/STREET SHEET

The "39" on a burgundy awning along Fell Street is the most visible marking identifying a city-funded drop-in center that is gearing up to expand its services in anticipation of greater numbers of homeless clients walking through its doors.

Often referred to as "39 Fell" by those in the know, the McMillan Drop-In Center is broadening its sobering services, adding full-time nurses and experimenting with a computerized shelter placement system that may grow to include photographic and fingerprinting capabilities. In addition, McMillan peer counselors, many of whom are former homeless, have been warned to meet professional standards or face disciplinary action.

The expansion of McMillan‚s stabilization or sobering area to include additional medical services appears to be a priority. Normally the facility has 28 beds set aside for public inebriates brought in by the police and Mobile Assistance Patrol. Like McMillan, MAP is under the aegis of Community Awareness and Treatment Services, Inc., a non-profit organization that contracts with and receives funding from the city.

According to the Department of Public Health, it was the Board of Supervisor's Hospital Diversion Task Force that recommended increasing McMillan's sobering services. The beefed up stabilization area is being called the McMillan Sobering Center and is considered a pilot project. This means the program may or may not be a permanent fixture depending on its level of success.

Interestingly, a few individuals who work with the homeless see ulterior motives behind the city's efforts. They say the strengthening and expansion of McMillan's services is a result of the city yanking funds from full-fledged detox facilities and the likely implementation of Proposition N, which will cut welfare benefits.

On the night of April 7, two men who look lost wander into the McMillan Drop-In Center. It turns out the two are nurses from the Ozanam Center, a local detox facility affiliated with the St. Vincent de Paul Society. They say Ozanam is closing its medical detox unit, and they are considering working at McMillan. Ozanam is one of several detox facilities that will reduce or eliminate services for substance abusers.

The advent of Proposition N may also be impetus for McMillan's increase in services. In July, certain individuals receiving approximately $340 a month in city welfare benefits will have their payments cut to about $59. The city says it will use the $14 million or so in expected savings to provide more housing and services for the homeless. The homeless say that's hogwash. They fear increased lawlessness and greater numbers on the street.

Supporters of Proposition N, which was ratified by voters in November and devised by city supervisor and mayoral candidate Gavin Newsom, say the homeless squander their cash benefits. Indeed, Proposition N was given the popular moniker Care Not Cash. Voters may have been convinced that it is housing and services the homeless need not money.

But in addition to other logistic difficulties with Proposition N, what voters may have failed to realize is that the city will be hard-pressed to free up housing for the homeless when former dot.commers and the newly unemployed are clambering for affordable places to stay in a city where reasonable rents are nearly impossible to find.

It is about 6 p.m. on a Tuesday night and the McMillan Drop-In Center is rapidly filling. Of the 60 or so chairs available for clients to sit in about eight remain free. Clients sit along six oblong tables where they eat, play cards, talk or simply sleep. There is also an area at the back of the facility where clients can watch television.

Asked to give their impression of Proposition N, two McMillan clients who receive cash benefits from the city quickly speak up. They joke about the homeless turning to crime to make up the difference in cuts. The men, who are regulars at the center, appear more resigned than concerned about the potential slash in benefits. Just another hard knock for the homeless.

Not far from the men sits a woman, probably in her late thirties, who has sat idly in the drop-in center every day for at least the last six months. Rarely if ever does she speak, as she sits staring straight ahead, a black hood hiding her face and three white plastic bags at her side.

An old man with frizzy, white hair and a tangled beard sits against the wall. For the most part he is quiet tonight, but he has been known to laugh hysterically for no apparent reason and masturbate in view of other clients. Staff has been instructed to ask the man to shower at least once a week to guard against his problem with lice.

The two McMillan clients described above are not atypical of the homeless people who arrive every day at 39 Fell. Many are mentally ill, drug addicted or both, meaning that simple solutions such as shelter and nominal services will not meet their needs. These are individuals who will only benefit from long-term care in the forms of housing and treatment.

According to city officials, implementation of Proposition N will free up about $14 million that will go toward homeless services and housing. But it is no secret that the amount is but a pittance when considering the scope of San Francisco's homeless problem and the population's medical, housing and treatment needs.

The McMillan Sobering Center is tentatively scheduled to open near the July 1 implementation date of Proposition N and will be funded by the DPH, private hospitals and private fundraising to the tune of about $800,000. According to the DPH, the department's share of the funding will be in the neighborhood of $400,000. The DPH's Tom Waddell Health Center and CATS will operate the project jointly.

So it is to a nondescript drop-in center on Fell Street that the city is turning to meet the needs of a population that continues to grow despite cuts in services, police raids on camps and disdain from the city's elites. The question is whether McMillan and other service providers will be up to the task.

(Editor's note: The $400,000 in private funding for the Sobering Center is for one year only. Meanwhile, the estimated cost to the City to operate the 39 Fell St. facility next year is estimated to be over $1,000,000.00. The actual medically supported detox facility at Ozanam center is having $563,722.00 cut in this budget cycle and is slated to close July 1st, 2003.)

by Tiny

“ Mr. Freeman. .Mr. Freeman…are you listening to me.. I need you to understand me…you are no longer allowed on Telegraph avenue – if you are seen there, you will be arrested…”

The Tall man with the gray-black beard barely nodded while knocking his thin frame against the confines of his bright Orange Alameda county jail outfit. If he could only just focus on his feet – he knew he would be ok , but there was a wall in each direction . Steps.. he would just focus on the steps...

Six steps, just six more steps, If he could just get a little further. He walked straight like he always did. How far could he go? He would just keep walking like nothing. He wasn’t gonna stop for nobody. If he could just pass this intersection....

Kevin Lee Freeman was a houseless mentally disabled man who had walked back and forth on Telegraph Av for over 20 years. He talked to no one. No one talked to him, “ He was a fixture on Telegraph,” Osha Neuman, an advocate and lawyer for low-income and houseless folks in the East Bay commented.

Last year a judge ruled that due to the fact that people just didn’t like him, especially store owners on Telegraph ave, he would have to stop walking on the one street he knew.

“ I’m not gonna stop for anyone, no matter what…just six steps more...”

“ But he kept coming back to Telegraph and the police kept putting him in jail – the last time he was in court on some minor homeless violation, I think it was public drunkenness, the judge sent him to Santa Rita county jail up in Pleasanton” , Osha related Mr. Freemans horrific tale to me in a somber slow cadence, “he was put in a cell with another mentally disturbed man. The next morning the guard was called to their cell only to find an extremely bloody scene, parts of Mr. Freeman’s brain matter smeared on the wall, his cell mate killed him by beating him to death with his bare hands…”

Osha went on to explain that they have basically no mental health services available for folks in Alameda County and no beds for alcoholics like Mr. Freeman who might want to detox, and that what happened to Mr. Freeman was a frightening example of .the criminalization of homelessness reaching a new level…”

I thought about some of the scholarship on mental illness that I had learned at the anti-psychiatry conference and protest that was held in San Francisco this last week.. “The question is what is madness? Is it a fixed notion or is it really conceived by a society that is pathologized by the Mental Health industry,” mental health survivor and advocate Michelle Curran commented on a panel at the conference. I wondered if Mr. Freeman was really “ crazy” or just unlikable

“ I just didn’t like the guy, he was mean, scary and ugly ” a woman who worked on Telegraph av remembered him when I described him, “ He just wasn’t nice”

Steps …. I take 6 steps and then six more ...

by Joe B.

This isn’t a column though it will be read online by a few hundred people or more.

A few months ago, I began a writing about on line dating.

Mainly it was about myself being so out of touch, inept, or too creative when it came to invent online persona’s for lots of electronic dating.

Many online dating services asked for photo’s as part of their personal profile.

Well given the fact that since I was little and didn’t listen to my parents about my lazy left eye that problem never got corrected.

We all know how cruel children really are when someone is slightly different.

Skip all the years of laughs, jokes, fights, hurt feeling, and or rejections that ensued.

Eventually a few women see through my imperfections and found regular somewhat normal if goofy guy boosting my self esteem and also tempered it knowing that my imperfect is always there for all to see and talk about.

I messed up a lot on those e-dating systems from too much info of my ultimate goals to doubling my profile on one of the dating forms.

Through poems, and on other sites for elder adults or younger (banning young adults from 22 to 25 on a belief that they’re lives are just begun and If ever I did love someone that young and they decide to leave it would devastate me yet being the man I hopefully am wouldn’t burden her with letting her go would be best for.

It’s how I’d like the scenario to go even if not keeping silent doing what some men do in that situation exercise,
nailing girls or women wanting to be nailed of course safe sex upper most in both their minds.

This open letter is for all the women who’ve answered my profile on e-line date sites which I’ve gone on many.

If not me here’s to all of them finding the love they seek.

For Classy lady looks for a classy man…. in Cali.


Hearts-of-fire -to look-find a friend. Burlin, Cali,

C-potatoe/A###, a young S. J. Cali,

In far off ancient civilized Hy-India, Senyor/Wanted Love Heavenly Thanks.

Mild, y-wild, saulshine, Vaejoe, Cali

And at long last though now least a lovely warm hearted lass, Stckon, nothin’ like a full fleshed fabulous Cali WOMAN!

To all of you and any who may not have heard from me due to of glitches in my home/work pc’s I am heart sick that I could not write you.

If I caused any women, from youthful adults, mature women of the world, or the sensual, sensuous, sexy, women senior’s the slightest anguish please forgive my errors. One more thing Ladies, Women, Wimin, Grrrrs, Earth Mother’s All. Please contact me by emails
1) askjoe@poormagazine.org
2) Ostelljazz@hotmail.com
and also 3) 1000 Market St.

San Francisco, Calif. 94102-3980.

The above is my home address I will have a phone and its records message’s.

The young woman you hear is a friend who’s helped with a recorded message.

She is very enthusiastic that’s her personality.

That my open letter, I await questions, answers, and if you’ve peeked at my askjoe website errors are made but I do get my points across.

I must leave to straighten up my paper and books strewn room making it habitable for humans other than myself.

I bid you all great days, nights, and great times in all your lives.

Joseph O. Bolden
Staff Writer/Columnist of
Poor Magazine

by Joe B.

Tiny and I to race City Hall by van.

Today people are mostly held their anger at Mayoral hopeful Supervisor though there are shouts, signs, loud murmurs about Gavin Newsom.

One good thing I didn’t bring my backpack so the guard and metal detector didn’t take long going in this time.

A few of the speakers are Mr. Darrel Walker, regular citizen, Comedian/Political Activist Bill Anderson (is that right) and Mr. Abdullah Megahed/Homeless Activist and Legally blind who also will speak to Care Not Cash debate.

All I do is take photo’s as directed by Tiny and hoping some are worth a newspapers insert and I get a film credit.

Folks, I’m also available for commercial, voice over work, and already have a Ask Joe. Holding Up The Sky.

Also currently working on short stories – I’m need of a Literary Agent also.

That’s enough personal plugging.

The crowed are full of so many people against N and vocal about it the place could’ve been adjourned it didn’t come to that as people saw it would defeat the purpose of having a public hearing on the subject of leaving people with $59 monthly many sheltered or not with the care or services curiously in suspended.

Mr. Newsom, listened with patience, asking question, poised showed professional care with all at the podium.

The man is polished, awake, and ready with both questions and answers.

After more shots of people, asking if the wish to decline being photographed which is the right of every citizen though most people don’t mind.

I myself wouldn’t want media in my grill either. Big media is there from KRON News, ABC-7, KCBS, and CBS-5.

I’m sure there are other news-feeds but since flashing folks with a throw-away camera I could not be sure which but I know it wasn’t all English Telemundo –14 (if I’m in error)

Excuse me, running around with paper, pen take pictures, getting names is a slight distraction.
Note to self by digital recorder next when I can.

Later the van heads back to POOR Magazine headquarters. 5 years later, I’m still not use to quickie "Guerrilla Journalism" That’s the media biz for you.

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by Joe B.

This is Pt.4 of C-Phones, here’s where I begin.

Yeah, women are emotionally stable and above using technology to manipulate their personal situations.
[Just like all top chef’s are women and men aren’t good at nurturing children.]

Nah, women don’t force men into emotional investments they just nudge it in their favor].

Now you know why I always say "Get All The Rejections Out Of The Way."
So you can have the 1 or 2 yes’s that’s what I need it may take a long time but its worth getting rid of player-fun girls/women for serious mature relationships and not just… bed-good by-females.

Women as usual are better at it because they use both left and right hemisphere’s of the brain.

Most men either because of societal or cultural upbringing are trapped with one side more dominant than the other.

I believe men can do this too if we keep switching right to left as women do.

As with everything there always exceptions to every rule. So, they have lots of male’s to choose from and men have a two or three days to call or they’re deleted from the phones memory.

No fuss, pain, or heated arguments just off-line. Thing is, for many its mere dalliance to show how desirable they are without doing the actual deed, pre-electron notches of potential lovers.

Men can play the game one of three ways.

1) Play it the way women have it now advantage theirs.
2) Do the same as woman advantage to male’s.
3) Go to same bars/clubs or where ever both sexes mix, see which women collect phone number’s. refuse to play any of the games.

What women and men really think of all the tricks of emotional in-jokes on evolving cell phone power plays? ….Bye.

PS, I can go on but men and especially women know the spiel on emotive, manipulative power they wield when they chose to use can be vicious, arbitrary, mean spirited, spiteful and once turned on is hard to resist such heady power unless it balanced and equal.

For most women they know the balance for others its too easy to make males keep paying even the men now paying are not the ones who’ve offended them in the place.

"The make ‘em all play becomes "the evil that women" as opposed to men do. Think about it.
Want to say something about what I’ve said by all means do. Bye.

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