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by Brother Y - Poverty and Race Scholar & PNN staff writer
I have been
I have been where coyotes walk dare you walk the walk?
I have been where coyotes talk dare you talk the talk?
I have been where coyotes die
I have been where women die
Dare you shed a tear?
I have been where it never snows but it snowed when I was there!
I have been from north to south from east to west
I have been.
Dare you dare?
Part I: Quality of Life, Recyclers, Needles and Golden Gate
It has been estimated that 30% or more of homeless people not only in the Bay area, but throughout the entire nation are disabled American veterans. Regardless of whether the disability is a physical impairment, mental impairment or substance abuse issue, this fact is an indication of America’s many double standards.
One such journalist who’s recent writings exemplify these double standards and uses severe hate speech against poor people is San Francisco Chronicle reporter, C.W. Nevius. In support of “cleaning up” Golden Gate Park, Nevius has written outright false statements about recyclers and needles
In several of his articles, C.W. Nevius mentions “ the march of the junkies,” when referring to those headed into Golden Gate park each night. But what about the driving of yuppie winos? What I mean by this is the many yuppies who after having wine with their dinner get behind the wheel of a car. Or how about prescription junkies who get behind the wheel of a car after ingesting their mood and mind altering prescription drugs? Or even worse those who ingest prescription drugs and alcohol and then get behind the wheel of a car?
Also completely false and unfounded is Nevius’ strike against needle exchange programs around Golden Gate Park.
It is quite obvious to me that if someone is discarding needles on the street they are not interested in exchanging them, and it is quite possible that they did not receive them from the needle exchange program to begin with. The whole point of a needle exchange is to exchange used needle for new ones. All who use the services of the needle exchange are not illicit drug users, some actually have a legitimate medical need for their use.
Closing the needle exchange program would cut off many from this vital and needed service. There are many other possibilities as to how so many discarded needles wind up in the park. A few other possibilities are as follow.
1. Housed junkies who shoot up in the park and discard them there so their roommates and loved ones don’t know.
2. Housed junkies who shoot up at home and then dump their used needles in the park out of fear of someone digging through their trash and finding them.
3. People who have a legitimate medical reason for their use but are otherwise slobs.
4. A stingy doctor or dentist in private practice could discard them in a dumpster only to be pulled out by one of the local gentries all to spoiled dogs. Trust me this is not that remote a possibility, I have practically wrestle meat out of the mouths of dogs who’s owners did not appear to be homeless.
5. An ambitious reporter who is determined to “Do something about the homeless.”
It wouldn’t be the first time someone in mass media has tried to tweak a media event.
Remember the video footage of Palestinians joyously dancing and waving flags sometime after September 11th? We found out a short while later that this was old footage shot years before the events of September 11th even occurred. Or how about the young reporter in New York who fabricated 90% of what he wrote? Quite frankly the possibilities are endless.
“Quality of Life”
The so called “quality of life” violations that Mayor Newsom uses as an excuse to conduct raids at night on the homeless are nothing new. Often when governments want or need more money they create an internal enemy. A good example of this is the government of Nazi Germany taking away the property rights of Jews and then conducting house raids to support their actions. Of course most folks don’t realize that the Nazi’s got their blue prints for apartheid from none other than the U.S.'s treatment of the “savage Indians” and “subhuman.” African slaves.
Quality of life laws were made popular by Rudy Giuliani former mayor of New York, passed long to Shirley Franklin the mayor of Atlanta, Ga., and are now being passed along to Newsom here in San Francisco.
The truth is these so called quality of life laws are simply a revised version of the fugitive slave act of 1854. In an attempt to be appear to be a champion of the homeless Newsom created the care not cash program. Every slave master through out history has known that he must feed and house his slaves if he expects to get any work out of them. Good massa’ Newsom works his slaves by indentured servitude in the courts and through workfare.
As you may recall workfare was created by former president Bill Clinton another, so-called “champion of the under dog.” But workfare is set-up from the get-up. The small amount of cash that workfare recipients receive after paying rent in their run down roach and bed bug infested slave quarters is not enough to prevent them from committing a crime but rather it is just about enough to inspire them to commit a crime.
During the original American Slavery the only thing it was illegal for a slave master to do was teach his slave how to read and write. The ability to read and write empowers people and takes them one step closer to independence.
Recyclers as micro-business people rather than criminals of poverty
Recyclers are independent business people and C.W. Nevius’ attack on them is unforgivable. To suggest that the recycling supports illegal activity is ridiculous. At worst it may or may not support low-level drug usage.
Should large corporations that employ drug users be shut down? If the answer is yes please begin with the Chronicle.
Recyclers provide the city with an invaluable service, without which our city’s landfills would be more than overflowing. Not only should recyclers be thanked, they should be subsidized with everything they need to make the job cleaner and safer for them. In addition they should receive a stipend for providing the city with such an invaluable service. They should not be scoffed at and scorned.
In point of fact all recyclers are not homeless many of them are immigrants, disabled folks or ordinary people trying to make ends meet. Some of the most compassionate people I have met in my life have been homeless.
Part II: The Summer of Love
Something that I feel is important for me to mention at this time is my experience during and after The 40Th anniversary celebration of the summer of love. I have no idea how many people Speedway Meadows holds but if it’s 100,000 then 150,000 were there!
Believe it or not the majority of the crowd were not just longhaired hippy types. Not that this contingency was not properly represented but there seemed to be far more clean cut middle aged white people than any other group. There did not seem to be an overwhelming amount of alcohol or other drugs there, but there were definitely plenty present. Also present were blankets, picnic baskets as well many other items that would get the owners of such items arrested if they were homeless and the mayor gets his way.
I personally had a wonderful time sitting and enjoying the music and occasionally walking around looking for exotic food, catching snippets of others conversations and simply reveling in how great a multitude was present. As far as I could tell there was not a single violent episode that took place, nor did I hear a single disagreement take place.
After the event was over the crowd slowly dispersed again without any arguments or physical altercations taking place. This is a perfect example of how much good can happen when people are willing to police themselves, and how little we really need the police in our lives.
It was getting close to dawn when I left but it wasn’t quite there yet. My ride met me at the corner of Fulton and 24th avenue. There was a substantial crowd there but again it still seemed more like a bunch of people leaving a Sunday picnic, rather than what one might stereotype as a great big free outdoor hippy concert.
While riding down Fulton chatting with the driver I couldn’t help but notice a huge dome of monolithic proportions. The dome was none other than city hall itself. At first I did not realize this until I noticed the gun metal gray coloring with gold gilding down the sides, making city hall appear to be in conflict with itself. After all, the city’s motto written in Spanish is “Gold in peace Iron in War.” These facts not with standing, at first glance the dome appeared to be the tip of a giant fountain pen ready to lay ink to the sky.
After riding down the road a bit the dome appeared to disappear behind one of the many hills that make up Fulton again metaphorically reshaping itself this time taking on the appearance of a giant hypodermic needle. When I noticed this the first thing that came to mind was not a homeless junky, But rather the apostle Paul’s first and only encounter with Jesus. I suppose some of us are better at keeping the focus on ourselves rather than on others.
Insofar as so called “quality of life” violations go it has never been a question of quality so much as it has been an issue of equality of life or equal right to live ones life as that individual sees fit to live it.
Upon finally descending the hill completely the shape shifted back to city hall, the center piece of the crookedest street in San Francisco in spite of Lombard being the crookedest street in America. [actually the crookedest street in America is Pennsylvania
Avenue in Washington D.C. but that’s a different story altogether.]
Despite the fact that the majority of the board of supervisors is supposedly progressive, they are after all the ones who penned the so-called quality of life laws. The laws that the mayor uses to give marching orders to the police to swarm on the homeless in Golden Gate Park like so many storm troopers in the same indecent hours that real storm troopers would. This is the 40th anniversary of the summer of love, but apparently no one has told this to the mayor or the board of supervisor. Apparently no one has told them that 40 upside down is oh but I guess it all is in how you choose to look at things.
I thought it would be cool to end this aspect of the story with an interview of the most famous homeless person in the history of the world that would be none other than Jesus of Nazareth.
Brother y: So Jesus it has been quite a while since we have spoken how about telling us about your present housing condition?
Jesus Christ: The birds of the air have nests and the foxes have holes but the son of man has no place to call his home.
Brother y: Boy you said a mouthful there! Tell me Jesus has anyone ever accused you of being a drug addict?
J.C: They call me gluttonous wine bibber.
B.Y: I suppose that’s bad enough! Have people mistreated you or persecuted you because of their own misunderstanding of you?
J.C: Well there was a gentleman by the name of Saul who I encountered while he was en route to Damascus, Syria. As you may or may not know Saul was a high ranking Roman official and a Jew who some how believed that myself and my followers were somehow committing blasphemy by speaking the gospel in Palestine and the surrounding territories in the way in which we did. I felt the best way to encounter him would be in the form of a vision; boy did I scare the bejesus out of him! Anyway he changed his name to Paul, became a follower himself and wrote a bunch of letters known as the epistles.
B.Y: So Jesus can you give us your thoughts on homelessness or poverty in general?
J.C: Blessed are the poor for they shall be with us forever!
B.Y: So what about your personal thoughts and hopes for the future?
J.C: One day you will see me on the right hand of power on the throne next to my father who is in heaven.
B.Y: Thank you Jesus!
Ironically just as I finished my “interview” with Jesus and stepped out of the office to get a bite to eat I ran into my friend Riot, who was arrested last year in Golden Gate Park roughly around the same time that I was, his true crime on the day he was arrested apparently was the same as mine: being a compassionate human being.
Apparently a narc asked him to sell him some weed, Riot told him that he did not have any weed for sale but did offer to smoke a bowl with him after this good Samaritan did his good deed of offering free herbal relief to someone who appeared to be in need the cops were alerted and as far as I’m concerned planted several bags of heroin on him. He was charged accordingly and spent three days in jail.
I on the other hand after attempting to provide herbal relief to someone who I believed at the time was experiencing a mild seizure. I was arrested and held for 6 weeks without the benefit of proper medical treatment the only major differences between myself and Riot as far as I can see is that he is white and I am black .
At the time I was told that it was easier for a housed person as opposed to a homeless person to get out of jail on his own recognaces, yet I was housed and sat in jail for 6 weeks while Riot was homeless and was out within three days. By no means is this to suggest that either one of us deserved to be there but rather it is an observation of just how abusive and corrupt the judicial system is and how much skin color matters even here in the so called liberal west.
Rest assured as long as there are Uncle Toms and Aunt Janes like Kamala Harris willing and ready to assist the white power structure in denying people of color their rights the onslaught will continue.
“War, huuh, what is it good for? absolutely nothin’!”
-War
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