Story Archives 2003

by Mike Vizcarra/ PoorNewsNetwork Community Journalist

I was assigned to attend a reading and discussion by Amiri Baraka, Poet Laureate of New Jersey and and long time civil rights and reparations activist. Due to a recent poem penned by Baraka entitled "somebody blew up America" he has been at the center of a controversy, which involved the officials in New Jersey urging him to "step down" from his laureate title, and his stance that the "laureate title was only a compliment so how can they take away a compliment". PNN assigned me to go to this reading in light of the fact that POOR Magazine recently launched the "Po Poet Laureate, which attempts to break through the staunchy, mostly white and formally educated "literary" cirles that bestow the "laureate" title, and attempt to truly give recognition to unheard and unseen poor literary artists

Baraka held court at the African American Museum and Library on a Sunday in late October in
Oakland to address the current demand to recompense black people for a long
history of disenfranchisement and political and social oppression in the
United States as well as share some his literary works.

"Reparations is a very broad and deep issue", said Greg Morozumi
of the EastSide Arts Alliance, who introduced Amiri Baraka, "I'1s just not
dealing with the past, but deals with current issues."

At 68 years young, Amiri Baraka stepped up to the podium to
address the audience, his grey suit complementing his salt and pepper beard.
His diminutive stature was in contrast to the amount of respect he garnered
from the people gathered to hear him speak. Baraka has taken a lot of flak
lately for his poem, 'Somebody Blew Up America.' But this was not the topic
he would discuss today, at least not until later in the afternoon. Today he
is talking about reparations. Reparations for African Americans.

"The struggle for equal rights is a struggle for
self-determination, is a struggle to choose, the right to decide,"he says.

Baraka wants change. He wants reform. He wants unity from
African Americans. And he wants them now. It takes more than just words to
get these things done. And Baraka understands that. All these groups with
acronyms, he says, are just doing nothing.

"It's the purity of doing nothing," says Baraka. "The only way
you can get agreement is through struggle. We have to get our instruments
of struggle. We have to have a critical transformation of the African
American people."

During his hour-long speech, Amiri Baraka outlines the
objectives that are necessary for reparations. It's not about a monetary
number, he says, because that would be insulting to put a number on it.
It's about a relationship to America, of social, economic, and political
reconstruction. He wants reparations as a reform, not as affirmative
action, but as a Constitutional Amendment.

First and foremost, Baraka is calling for a united Afro-American
front. "We need to be raising our productive forces of African Americans.
The whole community needs to produce the instruments, needs to produce the
institutions, to raise one1s self," he says. The support must come from a
united Afro-American front, and must be an accurate reflection of African
Americans in the U.S.

Baraka also calls for a national black newspaper. "We cannot
leave any aspect of politics alone, you must be involved," he says. "We
need a direct focus, people do not know what to do," he continued. This is
essential to African Americans, he says. A national black newspaper would
bring solidarity and a focus for African Americans.

He also calls for a central African American bank with elected
officials. That way, the people who are running the bank would be people
that African Americans would want to be running the bank. Baraka is calling
for changes in the political system in America. Amendments. This is the
relationship he was referring to. Reparations is about reform and
reconstructing the social, economic, and political structure of America. To
go from the messed up stage we're in right now to socialism is the wrong
thinking, he says. He would rather argue that point than go in that
direction. Because even if you have reforms, you still haven't defeated
monopoly capitalism or imperialism. To have these changes in place would be
a critical transformation of African American people. It is the "unfinished
democratic revolution," as Baraka put it.

But Baraka wasn't just talking about African Americans. This is
true for any minority group. Reparations is also a major issue with Asian
Americans. To have reparations is to get at the roots of racism in America.
As mentioned earlier, reparations is not about money. It is about equality.
It is about justice. It is about having the right to do what we want to
with our lives. As Amiri Baraka stated, "We have to get our own instruments
of struggle."

He ended his discussion on reparations by reading the infamous poem,
"Somebody Blew Up America." It is powerful writing. And to hear him read
the poem was an experience I would not forget, i took this back to A. Faye, Po POet laureate at POOR which then inspired her to write her response, entitled: The persecuted Word

The Persecuted WORd
by A. Faye Hicks

The written word, passed on from ancestors to their descendants

From the beginning of conversation

Spoken words between lovers, family, and friends

Until hatreds begin, now your enemy, now your friend

The word, spoken as music and song, is magical

The swaying forms dancing in heat is a mystical song

Poetry is the Blues, is singing from your Soul.

Jazz blown, is a form of this

The written word, the meeting of minds,

Should never be denied

Slaves denied Liberty is tying up the Soul

When the freedom of speech is denied, It is tying up the Mind.

The Americas live under a Banner Of Lies

The United States, Constitution guarantees

The right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness

I guess I didn’t get a warranty

Slaves coming from Glory Island, were denied the freedom of Life

Mournful Souls, thrown over board

I am drawn to the Oceans

You hear them in the waves, they were denied all freedoms

The freedom of Speech

Listen to the Whales Wail, they are the witness to this flight to Hell

Too deny the Freedom of the written word

Is to deny my right to The Pursuit of Happiness

To take the Wreath upon my Head

To chop off my Tongue

They marry me to my enemy

They alienate me from my kinfolk

To murder the Truth!

Some folks like to write white lies, myths, and tall tales

I like to dance in the Rain, and burn with passionate Fire

I like to read, and write the truth

So may I read?

Some One, Blew up America

Hilter’s Nazi murdered the Jews

European Nations enslaved the Colored People of the World

The San Francisco Giants Lost the World Series

Can I read, Big Brother!!!!!

For more work by Amiri Baraka go on-line to tumis.com
for More by Po Poet Laureate A. Faye Hicks and all the Po' Poets see below...

by By Leroy Moore/Illin and Chillin and DAMO

From New Jersey to Cali there has been an ongoing funding crisis for community services and support for people with developmental disabilities. This year’s additional budget cuts and even more massive cuts next year means the entire system could be eliminated. The New Jersey Minorities with Disability Coalition forward DAMO an article in a local newspaper entitled ‘Unkept promises to the state disabled.’ New Jersey’s Governor, McGreey inherited the problem of the underfunded, crowded, aging, understaffed of developmental centers and services. Federal inspectors found a bushel of problems and threaten to cut off $73 million in federal funds to the already starving system. California is in the same situation. The state Bureau Audits reported that California’s obligation to people with developmental disabilities can’t be met because of inadequate funds once again.

The California Legislative Analyst Office projects massive budget shortfall of over $20 Billion; predicts current year deficit at 6 billion. According to Marty Omoto, Legislative Director for United Cerebral Palsy Association, Gray Davis administration is reportedly considering the possibility of closing down a least one of the five state owned Developmental Centers for the purpose of saving. The same reason is now used by the LA County Supervisors who are trying to shut down Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center in Downey saying that it is too costly. The implication of this decision on people with disabilities, especially those of color are drastic. Rancho is dedicated solely to the treatment of disabling condition and is the only source of quality rehabilitation services for southern Californians who are impoverished and on Med-Cal many are Latino and Black. Rancho also treats pediatric conditions, which makes it an important link in the Developmental Disabilities system of care. The Supervisor final vote will be made in Jan.

Although this is drastic times, DAMO and disabled people of color are still not benefiting from the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Individual Disability Education Act of 1975 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. On top of that our neighborhoods have been gentrified leaving a huge number of poor disabled people of color homeless. Many of us can’t afford institutional care or can’t understand and move in the red tap bureaucracy that wraps around developmental centers and other institutional settings leaving us and our family outside in the cold. The National Council on Disability has reported that over 70% of people with disabilities live under the poverty line. However if you add race to the picture it rises to over 90%. In communities of color there are a lack of organizations serving people with disabilities whose fault is this?

I do believe we need to come together in this budget crisis time but we also need to make some fundamental changes to the disability services system. For one we need to look at the funding stream that funnels into traditional disability organizations and leave our new organizations of and for disabled people of color struggling to serve our own community on shoestring budgets. The key problem of the constant lack of funding for our services and implementation of our laws is that there is no radical grassroots activism on a large scale with diverse players inside and outside the traditional disabled movement. Thus giving states the red carpet to walk on our needs. We need an organizing leadership school to train our disabled youth about advocacy on a local and state level to increase new leaders with revolutionary ideas.

The disabled community has never really dealt with race or poverty and the unmet needs of disabled people of color and poor disabled people thus not keeping to the vision of the disability rights movement. So if the states are not keeping their promises to its disabled whose fault is it? Is it time for new leaders? Is it time for local advocates to pull down our leaders in our states and show them reality in our neighborhoods? Is it time for the disability rights movement to splinter into women, race and homosexual sectors to educate our leaders and political leaders. I know one thing it’s time for a change not only because we are in budget crisis because if we don’t let other voices speak than we will continue to be underfunded limiting our growth.

Now there is a call for a statewide advocacy network to do grassroots organizing and advocacy to save our disability services, programs and benefites in the California budget crisis this year and next year. In the early part of December, 02, DAMO will be in Sacramento to make sure the voice of people of color with disabilities and our families are heard. This is only the beginning!

Please contact Marty Omoto
(916) 446-3204 email: martyomoto@crip.com
or DAMO at:
(415) 346-3740 Or (510) 649-8438 or sfdamo@Yahoo.com

Stay tuned for more info!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Leroy F. Moore Jr.
Executive Director of DAMO

by Joe B.

As Axis America or –Ameri-corp with Jr. Bush as
‘Prez , Commander and Chief bangs silverware for a dead oil based Middle East War.

I worry about a X-Mas, New Years date.

Just bringing things to a manageable, scale down
situation.

I hope people are wising up quickly and know that America cannot go rogue to long.

For all our superpowers its been proven we’re as vulnerable as any nation.

Which should make one
pause, think, and grow up, mature and have wisdom wielding power balanced with mercy, justice and love.

That’s it for me.. Bye.

Please send donations to

Poor Magazine or in C/0

Ask Joe at 1448 Pine Street St. Street,

San Francisco, CA. 94103 USA

For Joe only my snail mail:
PO Box 1230 #645

Market St. San Francisco, CA 94102

415- 626-4405

Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by Alex Cuff/PNNews Brief Editor

Elders in a Pakistani town told the founders of a school for girls that they were ‘opening the gates of hell.’ Graduates are now breadwinners.

20 years ago the Jalal family went door-to-door impelling reluctant parents in Mand, Pakistan, to send their daughters to a new school for girls. Initially the town elders rebutted the idea of girls getting an education which might for example empower them to write letters to their boyfriends. Some parents, mostly those working as servants, enrolled their daughters in the Zobaida Jalal School.

When the school began, the Jalal family guest house doubled as the classroom. Today there are over 30 classrooms and over 140 girls have graduated. The school has brought jobs to Mand and is bringing economic independence to its graduates some of who hold the best paying jobs in town. The girls learn English, Urdu, and Arabic, science, and social sciences. The also learn about Islam, women’s rights under the Koran, and they keep current event journals. They also learn that they can refuse to marry undesired partners proposed by their fathers.

What does this mean for the town once the graduates pursue college and careers outside of Mand? It isn’t evident that the girls are permanently moving away, abandoning family and mimicking the ways of the west where many leave home after gaining an education (not benefiting the home town in which they were given the opportunity). 20 years later some of the elders lament not sending their children to school.

Many of the graduates are employed as health workers at a maternity hospital who travel to outlying villages to teach health, hygiene, and birth control and provide sterilization kits to traditional midwives. This staff accompanies doctors to the homes of 300 women each month facilitating the communication between the families and the doctors. A dozen new schools have opened in surrounding villages because graduates are now available to teach.

by Alex Cuff/PNN News Brief Editor

In 1969 a clerk in the Bureau of Indian Affairs dropped the Samish Indian Nation off the list of recognized tribes, for no reason known today. For 27 years the Samish did not exist in the eyes of the US government. Without federal recognition, tribes are not eligible for health care, low-income housing assistance or money to meet educational needs.

The Samish are demanding reparations for tribal damage caused by this gross mistake. "For some of us, it’s less about the money and more about continuing to set the record straight about the contemptuous way in which we were treated" says Ken Hansen, tribal chairman. In May 1996, after years in court, the Samish were officially (federally) recognized as a tribe. The Samish are also filing a lawsuit to restore their treaty rights, such as fishing and hunting.

Although the Samish have regained some of their long lost benefits, not that much has changed with in the BIA. "Regrettably, some of the same people who caused this problem for us in 1969 are still at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, still doing damage to other tribes," commented Hansen. "I’m thinking about Duwamish, Chinook, Snohomish." Those three tribes are in the same position as the Samish found themselves for 27 years. Support is also missing from other tribes. The Samish face opposition from 7 or 8 out of 22 western Washington tribes in regards to regaining their tribal rights. These tribes would have to share Puget Sound’s fishing grounds with the Samish if they regain treaty status.

Craig Dorsay, the tribe’s attorney filed a separate suit against the BIA because the Samish has been waiting three years for it’s constitution and membership role to be approved. Plus they are still being funded as a new tribe, which provides the minimal amount of funding. The Bureau has still not submitted the tribe’s budget to Congress. Dorsay explains, "When a tribe is recognized, the bureau is supposed to meet with the tribe, determine their needs, and submit a budget to Congress. But the bureau has never done it." Hopefully the Samish, by demanding justice will speed up the process for the other tribes waiting for federal recognition and bring attention to the short comings of the BIA.

by Alex Cuff/PNN News Brief Editor

For the first time in the history of Brazil, a leftist candidate of the Workers Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores), Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has been elected President. Lula, a former factory worker, won Sunday’s presidential election with over 60% of the votes defeating Jose Serra of the ruling Social Democratic Party candidate. Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), is a political formation that has grown from municipalities to state governments. The celebrations in the streets on Sunday by PT supporters prove the popular discontent with unemployment and inequality in Latin America's most populous nation.

Lula won by promising social reforms for the poor and working people. Most voters in Rochina – Brazil’s largest favela, or slum in Rio – voted for Lula. “Lula promised me a raise, and I'm expecting to get it," said Leila Maria Oliveira, 48, a fare collector on Rio's buses who makes about $125 a month. "If he doesn't give it to me, I'm going to have to go to his office and collect it." Including an increase in minimum wage and more employment, Lula has promised Brazil food subsidies, and more spending on health care and education.

Since Lula formed alliances with groups traditionally hostile to his Workers' Party, including business leaders and evangelical Christians, some are questioning to what extent the politicians will compromise the proposals of the PT party. Hope lies in the fact that the PT is deeply rooted in Brazil's social movements, particularly the Landless Movement (MST) and the CUT (Brazil's trade union federation). The questionable alliances and a highly sophisticated media campaign, helped guarantee Lula a huge show of support -- more than 50 million votes in all -- on his fourth attempt at the presidency.

The fact that this is the first time in forty years that an elected president transfers the government to the president-elect of another party reveals the previous lack of democracy in Brazil, a country immersed in social and economic problems. “The responsibility of governing will be very great," Lula said late Sunday. Although there are promises of economic growth and social justice advances, the next government faces serious challenges: external debt of US$216 billion, a social welfare deficit, and 8 million unemployed Brazilians. Workers' Party officials said last week that they might draw on public pension funds in an attempt to pay for social programs until Brazil recovers from its economic slowdown.

This election and the new government’s decisions regarding national and foreign policy, will not only affect Brazil but the rest of the Americas. Fifteen days after assuming the position, Lula will have to make a decision regarding the FTAA. Lula has said the current proposals amount to an "annexation" of Brazil by the United States. The Workers' Party has said it will push to seek better terms for Brazilian producers in negotiations with the Bush administration over the Free Trade Area of the Americas.

by Joe B.

As one of a generation born after World War 2 I’ve lived through a few upheavals that are still ongoing.

I tell a friend about sex being a sacred act.

The laughter it dies down some things one need not say to another or never volunteer personal info.

It may have caught her off guard or it’s her real view of sex being no big deal anymore.

born in changing era’s a small, skinny kid gets beaten up then kissed by girl gangs fun one has to use different rules the "Don’t hit, hurt girls, women doesn’t apply.

My mother said "They hit, you hit back but don’t start fights - finish it."

I did at 5 or 8 but being 14 and older going through that and puberty is rough; guess they are as confused as everyone else.

Moving to another state, different schools, meeting more aggressive girls, angry women without and I clueless to why I’m fighting more girls than guys just made everything complex.

I’m in the library reading Ms., Cosmo, or other Women’s Magazine for clues.

After a while the fights stop, toughing, hugging, and kissing began but my past dealing with girls made it difficult to do same.

Eventually I leaned its something not against me I’m just in the way and focused on.

As a black male in a bubbling, churning resentment about male privilege which I’m clueless again.

I had, it was a given, not earned privilege as women must constantly earn.

Finally got through the mechanics of sex yet the hidden mind fields of emotional context, memories, appropriate, touch, fear is still with me.

How to comfort someone instead of being part of a problem.

Some of the Political Correctness keeps me from touching, holding, being a buffer, screen, in non sex context.

I’ve done the lay-in-bed-next-to –your-lover for sleep only.

Its not as frustrating and more satisfying that I didn’t need to be "ready or up" for her and she need not worry about fighting me off – I am trusted.

a humbling feeling to experience to know you she trusts to keep both hands, heads to themselves.

It happened a few times and sometimes it backfired and I wake up with a woman on me or I in her.

When your coaxed or forced into a situation the "Lay Back And Take It"
situation happens as another’s lust betrays one’s trust is degrading and what was done out of trust is now a mockery.

You feel unclean even in the throws of passion a part of you smiles grimly to get through even laugh before rubbing your body bloody raw in bath or shower at home.

People go through all sorts of trauma, survive and deal with inner demons.

Though all men are potential rapists not all men or most will rape but for woman a "Kill or castrate ‘em all, let God sort ‘em out" is a common theme for the wretched misery one sex has heaped on the other.

I can be respectful to all while avoiding knives, guns, pepper spray, avoiding Pornography, learning about Erotica, keeping mouth shut, and my brain open.

I still make Thansubstantive Errors but less all the time.

Any opinions you have, you know where to write.

I’d personally like to know what women really think
all this. …Bye.

Please send donations to

Poor Magazine or in C/0

Ask Joe at 1448 Pine Street St. Street,

San Francisco, CA. 94103 USA

For Joe only my snail mail:
PO Box 1230 #645

Market St. San Francisco, CA 94102

415- 626-4405

Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by Staff Writer

Dear Indigent Litigant,

I am living on very low income. I am struggling to maintain a van, which I use for necessary travel, as well as to get to the doctor and have assisted others in the
same way.

Occasionally I have had the need to ask people for money in shopping centers--I guess it is called "panhandling". My own feeling, as well as several court
decisions, is that the first amendment allows freedom of speech. Courts have pointed out that ones financial needs and need for help from others is important
communication.

I'm familiar with what "aggressive panhandling" basically means, and do not engage in that.

A few questions:

Can the police violate the law and arrest you for "non-aggressive" panhandling, and basically say "see you in court" if you suggest the law is on your side? What
in practice do they do?

Could a person E-mail organizations asking for financial help?

Are there any new changes?

I would appreciate your take on these questions. The laws in the past have been discriminatory against the poor and homeless.

I do have some past court decisions that I would be happy to share with you or anyone else who could benefit.

Keep up the good work--you are all correct that decisions on handling homelessness and low income should include the people who live it every day. Dee and
Tiny are GREAT.

Thank You.

Sincerely,

Jeff S.

Dear Jeff : Thank you for your letter dated Nov 8th. Tiny and Dee say hello .With regards to some of your questions it plays a very big roll depending on what city or state you live in. In San Francisco we a have a police municipal code 120 that actually prohibits officers from telling people to" move on". This is found in the San Francisco Police Departments General Orders under panhandling. Also the officer has to view the panhandling and ask the person being asked for money if the person is disturbing or bothering them. And unless the citizen approaches a police officer for assistance the police officers is not allowed to approach the panhandler directly. Again each city can have their own laws on this practice and the only good challenge is a federal challenge on constitutional grounds.

As I had stated in my story if you are not in violation of a law or ordinance then the police really can not touch you. If a local panhandling ordinance exists in your community you should familiarize yourself with it so you are not in violation. If no law exists then follow the state on guidelines for loitering,tresspassing as well if any covering panhandling. A short note on your court cases: If they are from California and this is where you live great ,if not and they were not heard from in a federal court than they have no jurisdictional standing in another state. My editor though would like to see what you have so please send them.

Usually any organization that gives out money usually does so to a non-profit organization or through some type of scholarship or grant program attached to a vocational school or University. As an example poor magazine gives no money to individuals, groups or associations of any kind because again, we are poor.

I have a friend here in San Francisco who went to City Hall and got a sellers permit.
This is the type that the street vendors are required to get to sell their wares down on the waterfront. So when he is approached by the police for panhandling or solicitation he advises the police he is dispensing advice and information and any revenue received is a "donation" to his company and is perfectly legal by law. It should be noted any prohibition on my friend to gather revenue in this matter is illegal since he is by law an authorized vendor and has a permit to "sell" (homelessness) or anything else he wants.

I hope this bit of info helps in your quest. Having a moving home is sometimes more difficult than a shelter. You are watched more because after a day or so you just stand out from the crowd as a "newbie" (new person in the area) and residents watch were you are going so if you don’t want to be discovered you have to be continuously moving your vehicle to avoid security or your friendly neighborhood watch block Captain

A very important story about panhandling from the POOR Magazine perspective is an article entitled is panhandling work? Volume 3 The WORK issue available on-line at: http://www.poormagazine.org/index.cfm?L1=news&story=309#results

Sincerely,

The Indigent Litigant

by Ace Tafoya/PoorNewsNetwork Community Journalist

When I was young I’d often lay my back against Mother Earth and face the big blue. I stare into outer space and wonder if there is truly life on other planets. A simple treasure.

Walking up the stairs at Faithful Fools Street Ministry to view "The Universe Story," 31 embroidered textiles from South Africa in honor of World Aids Day, reminded me of those times.

In the townships of Geluksdal and Tsakane, southeast of Johnannesburg, South Africa, life is not so simple. According to the press release, the population of these two townships is approximately 87,000 and the greater Brakpan area has the highest rate of unemployment. Issues such as life-long learning skills, unemployment, education and health care are major concerns of residents. HIV/AIDS continues to escalate alarmingly.

In July of 2002, work began by the Kopanang Womens Group. The project permitted these women to share life experiences while acquiring new income generating skills. They began a journey of understanding and hope. They began The Universe Story, a 31 piece embroidered textile set that chronicles the earth’s existance.

"The Narrative for the Cosmic Walk," written by Miriam McGillis, OP guides you through the 31 pieces from the Earth’s formation to galaxies emerging, to solar systems being born, to life forming all the way to today, the Story of the Universe, "being told as our sacred Story."

"This work tells the whole story of the universe and how it came to be, from the dinosaur time period to procreation to now," Rev. Kay Jorgensen from Faithful Fools Street Ministry exults to me. "They’re extraordinary!"

Yvauna Liesering, Jabulile Simelane and Sheila Flynn, OP, three of the women artists brought these lovely pieces of cloth extending more than 110 feet in length to San Francisco. Although the women are back in South Africa, these artworks linger beauty, wonderment and peace. These beauteously art pieces have the lived background of the artists involved, giving credence that all life forms are somehow connected in someway throughout the universe.

On some nights, I take my spot upon the earth and gaze up at the stars, sometimes forgetting they are there. Looking at these interlaced woven cloths, I sense the world and all of her problems: the bombs, the wars, the starving, the helpless and I put them all into one. It is truly a time for peace, I whisper to myself. This show runs throughout December 2002 at the Faithful Fools Street Ministry, located at 234 Hyde St. (between Eddy and Turk). Please call for more details and gallery times on (415) 474-0508.

by Valerie Schwartz/PoorNewsNetwork Community Journalist

I am walking down Polk Street to city hall. The streets sound hollow as I walk through a corridor of granite buildings gray as the sky. It feels like I’m walking, from a cell to the courtroom through the meandering halls… granite has a definite sound and feeling to the senses. Strange I should feel as though I am going to a trial as I approach the steps of City hall. Maybe it is time for the granite to listen to a people's tribunal and testimony…

"We are the salt of the earth...we're gonna stay here...we are of this earth." Willie Reese, San Francisco Day Laborer. In their continuing battle with Willie Brown and City Hall: La Raza Centro Legal/San Francisco Day Labor Program, supporters, neighbors and friends gathered on the steps of City Hall yesterday. They had come to ask for an end to the stalling tactics to allow their labor hall to be moved to Cesar Chavez. They had also come to announce that they are filing a lawsuit against the City and County of San Francisco for violating the agency's and the day laborers' First Amendment rights, by cutting their funding in response to the workers protests of the ongoing problems with the City government. Once again reality calls... once again we are talking about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and people being punished for pursuing their rights. The day laborers have been waiting for seven-months for the funds to be released by the City, i.e. the Mayor, so they are able to make this move and have La Raza Centro Legal administrate their program for them.

Tom Ammiano was the first speaker after being introduced by an interpreter to the workers, supporters, and the press. He was extremely brief but made a statement, “to express his solidarity with the S.F. Day Labor Program.” Mr. Ammiano then said that the day laborer’s, “need to be included in decisions made about them” and then said that he was trying to get the money released for the next calendar year.

I then listened to some of the members of the S. F. Day Laborers Program, Willie Reese and Lorenzo Tlapalmatl, who asked for permission to have the day labor program be located in the building at Cesar Chavez,so that they may be have access to vocational training, English classes, and to have their program be administered by La Raza Centro Legal.

Another worker then said, “Day laborers have always been struggling for a better life.” Most of the workers have families they need to take care of and provide for. They all want their children to have a good education, a decent life, and to rise up from the shackles of poverty and they have traveled a long way to be able to do these things. All of these requests that were made seem more than reasonable and very humble to me, although it is not hard to see that people are discontent with the time they have spent in limbo awaiting this move to become a reality.

Maria Blanco from MALDEF then came to the dais to speak. There was a fire in her eyes and assurance as she spoke to let the public know, “We are filing a lawsuit to uphold the right to free speech of all day laborers and San Francisco citizens.” Maria spoke about the continued harassment of the day laborers by the SFPD. Maria then addressed City Hall and told them, “Free speech does not end because you receive government money” and that she “hopes that the City rethinks and renews its contract.”

Ester Sabino, a member of the SFDLP’s “Women’s Collective” which at present has over 200 women in the collective who are day laborers and also canvass the street passing out flyers for domestic day labor. Ester too, like her co-workers asked the City for permission to move their building.

“We are here because we are angry at the City of San Francisco… the City has stalled over and over and denied access to build with permission to renovate”, stated Anamaria Loya of La Raza Centro Legal. She then said that the day laborers are, “equal valid members of this community, they are not sub human. They have the right to advocate and lobby for their interests.” Ms. Loya then spoke about how they were also excited about the strength of organizing, “Never before have the day laborers been treated as such a threat. The City can stall and stall but we demand our rights, we are an organized part of the labor movement…Mr. Brown we are not afraid of you!”

The press conference had two more speakers in support of the day laborers. They are residents of the neighborhood. Linda Ramirez and her daughter and her daughter showed up to support and ask for LRCL to be allowed to administrate for the SFDLP.

Then the last speaker and supporter, neighbor Fran Taylor spoke of how some of the neighbors complained that the day laborers had created litter and were a blight to the neighborhood. Fran told us how the litter had always been there that it didn’t just start with the laborers. Fran genuinely concerned, talked about how the day labor program was being treated by the City. Fran says, “Scapegoat is the only word we need to know here.” She then told us about how the DPT refused to put in safe crosswalks and reduce the speed limit on Cesar Chavez to ensure the safety of the children who attend two nearby schools of Cesar Chavez and the residents of the area. She talked about how the DPT would rather listen to complaints that the day laborers distracted traffic and created problems instead of focusing on the real issues of safety caused by irresponsible people who drive too fast. Fran wrapped it up with talking about how “Labor Ready Hiring Hall” fights the unionization of SFDLP and how they discriminate against women. Fran said, “This is hypocrisy.”

At a time in our nation when the economy is next to none for many, it seems more than admirable that we have programs like the San Francisco Day Laborer’s Program/ La Raza Centro Legal. We are talking about people who go out every day to work, which is usually temporary labor needed by many different people. Why… does the City Hall see this as a problem… because they have organized and tried to make a living wage and not cow down to union busting tactics and discrimination? When there are so many people who cannot find work or have become unemployed; why do they seem so upset about people, mostly immigrants, who provide for their families by doing a day labor that is a much needed part of this city’s workforce that needs acknowledgement? Are we not primarily a nation of immigrants and displaced peoples?

As I leave to go back to the magazine: I am hoping that the voices of the people who are here today travel and echo their message to the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors through the arena of granite, marble, and gold gilded buildings that were built to carry and administrate for the voices “of the people” and “by the people”, who live in and work in this city. The profiling must stop.