Story Archives 2008

by Vivian Hain/PNN

On November 5, 2007, two groups of low-income children in California from LIFETIME (Low-Income Families Empowerment Through Education), the California Association of Food Banks, California Partnership and H.A.L.A. delivered home-baked pumpkin pies and handwritten invitations to the Offices of both California Senator Barbara Boxer in Los Angeles and Senator Feinstein in San Francisco to encourage the senators to support full funding for the Food Stamp Program in the 2007 Farm Bill, which will be voted on this week.

The children delivered handwritten invitations for thanksgiving dinner, along with homemade pumpkin pies that were cut up as "pie charts," depicting the percentage of a modest thanksgiving meal that the current average food stamp benefit of $1.09 per person per meal can purchase (8.9%). POOR Magazine youth elder Jasmine Hain demonstrated to Senator Feinstein's office that the small single slice of pie represented the very small amount of food subsidy low-income families like her own are forced to manage with, despite the drastic increase in the cost of food over the past 30 years since the food stamp increase in 1977.

Monday marks the beginning of a week in which the Farm Bill will reach the Senate floor to fund a variety of programs, including food stamps for the next 5 years. At this point, neither of California's Senators has guaranteed that they would vote yes on a funding increase for the Food Stamp Program. The children, representing thousands of low-income children throughout California who are 80% of those receiving food stamps wanted to send a message to both Senators that all California's children deserve equal access to healthy, organic and affordable nutritious food.

With the average food stamp benefit totaling just $1 a meal, setting even a modest holiday table is a monumental challenge. The price of a Thanksgiving meal for a California family of four has risen by over 300% since the Food Stamp Program's inception in 1977. The minimum monthly benefit has remained frozen at just $10, yet the cost of food has gone up. An increase in funding would not only benefit California families suffering from food insecurity, but California's economy as well. It is about $50.00 to afford a Thanksgiving meal, yet low-income families in California who receive food stamps have to try and create a nutritious family meal on just $4.86- what is provided for a Thanksgiving meal with the food stamp subsidy given today.

Here's just a few examples of the increase in food costs since 1977, yet the amount of food stamps has not changed since then.

A Thanksgiving meal for four:

10 pound turkey $4.39 (1977) $14.90 (today)

14 oz package of cubed stuffing $1.17 (1977) $3.97 (today)

1 gallon whole milk$0.94 (1977) $3.19 (today)

2 lbs sweet potatoes 1.04 (1977)$3.54 (today)

12-oz. package of brown-and-serve rolls $0.68 (1977) $2.31 (today)

1 can of cranberry dressing�$0.26 (1977)�$1.00 (today)

1 combined lb. of celery, carrots, garlic and onions $0.86 (1977)$2.93 (today)

10 oz can of pumpkin pie mix $0.64 (1977)$2.16 (today)

1 nine-inch pie shell$0.60 (1977) $2.03 (today)

1 pound fresh green beans $1.06 (1977) $3.59 (today)

1 can cream of mushroom soup $0.34 (1977)$1.14 (today)

Misc. items (butter, flour, eggs, etc.)$2.49 (1977) $8.43 (today)

Total cost for a family of four $14.51 (1977) $49.20 (today)

METHODOLOGY: Research regarding current costs of Thanksgiving Meal market basket items was done on Safeway.com using five California cities (Sacramento, Fresno, Oakland, Humboldt and Los Angeles). The consumer price index was used to generate a ratio of inflation from 1977 to 2007. This ratio was then used to calculate an estimate of how much Thanksgiving dinner would have cost in 1977.

For more information, go to: www.cafoodbanks.org

For information on the research, go to:
http://woodrow.mpls.frb.fed.us/research/data/us/calc/hist1913.cfm.

Contributing Writers: J. Bartolow: www.cafoodbanks.org

by Leroy Moore/PNN

Leroy Moore: Keith you are many things Hip-Hop artist, advocate, father and now you are going into politics. Tell us your recent goals and projects.

Keith Jones: Well, my goals are quite simple at this stage of my life. The goals are to continue to strive to be a good father and to continue to work on issues that are important to me. As far as projects, I have begun to really focus on putting together a solid team and running an effective and successful campaign for the U.S. Senate.

LM: How many CDs have you put out and what is your latest?

KJ: Well, in my illustrious career (tongue firmly in cheek), I have recorded two cds and the latest one, which will be my last, is called "Vocal Tai Chi." Two of the tracks off of the cd have been featured on Krip-Hop Volumes 1 and 2.

LM: Where does the name Fezo and your other names you use come from?

KJ: The name has been around for almost as long as I have been into hip-hop. It is actually an acronym from "back in the day" and I came up with it after visiting my grandparents in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. After listening to Mr. Magic's Rap Attack and Cool DJ Red Alert, I decided I wanted to be an emcee. I felt I needed a name that was different from everybody else that also represented how "dope" I was. Hence FEZO, (F*ckin’ EZ to Obliterate suckers). I've had that name for almost three decades –that’s a long time.

LM: What is your response to the hip-hop industry when it comes to artists with disabilities?

KJ: I don't have one. The industry much like society in general has a schism towards people with disabilities. The reason I am and have remained unsigned is because they "didn’t know how to market me." This is indicative of a larger issue – there is uneasiness around disability and what talents and contributions the individual has to offer. So in that sense, I don't think the industry will "take a chance" on a hip-hop artist who is a person with a disability until and unless their attitudes change.

LM: We met face to face at the DNC in 2004 and now you are exploring a political run for the Senate why? And as a Black disabled man what do you bring to the political arena?

KJ: Why run? Because as a person concerned about the state and the future of the country. I believe that there has been a systematic consolidation of power and at the same time an ignoring of the really critical issues facing us as a country. For example, the recent report from the IRS that nearly 30% of the nations wealth is controlled by 1% of the nation's population. The fact that there is virtually no parity in quality or access to health-care, and that as a country this will be the first time that the succeeding generation has the prospect of doing worse than generation before it. And this on top of a war that needs to and should end.

And as a Black man with a disability I am under no illusions about what this journey will entail. The only thing I can anticipate is that I am intent on affecting change. I know that people may look at this endeavor as a lofty goal to obtain. I can’t help their impression of what a candidate should or must look like. I do believe however, that I could either complain about those making the decision or participate in the democracy as it's advertised. Or I can wait for the repercussions. What I bring to the race is a perspective that no other candidate has. A perspective on the "promise of America" and its "reality."

The promise that America has and offers for some is everything they could have imagined. For others it’s like an "Old wives tale," Yet for others its almost but not quite. I am not convinced that a candidate speaking focused group tested ideas is the answer this time. People want the truth this time – I know I do. I want that promise to be kept.

LM: Your state, Massachusetts, elected the first Black Governor. Have you followed his action and what do you think about his policies?

KJ: I pay attention to the policies along with the philosophy that guides him. I think he has a unique challenge before him. He has to for better or worst do what he said he intended to do as well as, be forever vigilant that he is governing for all. Do I agree with everything? No. Do I believe he is governing for the entire Commonwealth? Yes.

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LMDiscuss your political platform and the people that make up your supporters.

KJThe platform of "Fulfilling America's Promise," is centered on promoting along developing policies and legislation that support the workers of the Commonwealth and the country to earn a "living wage." This is done with a goal of stimulating a much fairer approach to equitable sustained economic growth.

Support equal and fair access to affordable health care, regardless of urban or rural dwelling, in the Commonwealth and the nation as a whole. Also, for those who have a need for governmental assistance; particularly seniors veterans children persons with disabilities and, families and individuals who are under insured.

Support the funding of public education in order to close the achievement gap, modernizing schools, recruiting and retaining talented people to the profession. All to guarantee our publicly educated students are some of the best prepared in the world.

Ensure that ALL citizens of the Commonwealth and the nation are afforded their constitutional rights and protections, including the right to vote, to choose, and to marry.

As for supporters, they aren't what one would consider typical for this type of candidacy.. The supporters cut across all demographics and, that at this point is a very good indication that people still believe in the promise of America.

LM: Last Congressional election there were many disabled candidates running but few got media attention. What would you do in your campaign to have the media cover you?

KJ: I have a very talented team who are committed to executing in every phase of the campaign – including attracting media coverage. But as I stated earlier, I am under no illusions. However, this is an era where user generated content sites and non-traditional outlets can be an entree to larger media outlets. Also, I know if this campaign appears to be even slightly "not ready for prime-time." It will be very difficult if not impossible to be seen as having a viable campaign – especially due to the unorthodox nature of me as a candidate. So, I am going to focus in the campaign on controlling what we can control and if we do that we will be right were we should be on November 5th 2008.

LM: What party are you running under and what is your view on political parties when it comes to race, poverty, people with disabilities and gays and lesbians?

KJ: I am running as an Independent/third party. In terms of the political parties and their stances related to race, poverty, people with disabilities and gays and lesbians, the answers lie in their actions towards these groups. America as well as the political parties have yet to engage in real and earnest dialog about the existence of racism, homophobia, classism or ableism. If you don’t engage or at least acknowledge that there are people in this country for whom those isms are all too real. That being the case, how can they understand or address the effects policy or, the effects socio-economic upward mobility. As a person who is among and advocate for these groups, I would say neither party has, really tackle the issues that have led to and perpetuate disparities for minorities, the poor, people with disabilities and gays and lesbians. Which is why I am running outside the two party system.

LM: Will you continue to do your cultural work if you win?

KJ: Of course, the only thing I probably won't do is shop for a record deal. But then again you never know.

LM: What are the top ten concerns of people in Mass?

KJ: At this stage there are a lot of issues facing the Commonwealth much like the rest of country. Some of the more pressing issues: affordable housing, the economy, healthcare, home foreclosures, taxes and, education. This includes highly charged issues like what to do about the undocumented residents ending the Iraq War, making communities safer, environmental concerns as well as, the dealing with the state's nearly $1 billion budget deficit. Also, there are issues that are very particular to each region of the state for example the proposed "Cape Wind" project in Nantucket Sound. The commonwealth has its own unique challenges and its own way of developing solutions to those challenges.

LM: You were in a documentary. Tell us more.

KJ: The documentary is called "Including Samuel." The film was done by Dan Habib whose son has a disability. When he asked me if I would like to be involved he said he wanted to show how he and his family include Samuel in all facets of school and community. What I found even more important was his desire to paint an accurate picture of life as a family. And what that a family faces when confronted with society's reactions to the family member with a disability. The film, "Including Samuel" also features other families, teachers, young people, parents and disability rights experts.

LM: I saw you make music with your feet in the studio please tell our readers how do you do that.

KJ: Well, it is a result of my disability limiting the dexterity of my hands. So, when your hands fail you use your feet and that's what I do. There’s no special equipment needed. I put the MPC on the floor and go for what I know. I use my feet not only to make music but also to write type draw and cook, if I'm hungry enough. I cant say when or how I started to do things in that way. My grandmother said that I "just started doing it." There were no classes. No training – I just did it.

LM: As a Black disabled advocate what is your view on the aftermath of Katrina?

KJ: Honestly, as disturbed and upset as I was and still am – I can’t say I was surprised. Whether its perception or reality, the facts speak for themselves. It was the poorest of the poor who were neglected and this was in a city where poverty among its disabled and African-American population ran well above the nation average. So, if you take that and compound it with non-existent emergency planning and what to me was and is a complete disregard of those who are in need how can you be surprised at the ongoing issues around Katrina and Rita and Gulf Coast recovery? I do however think that as a Senator I can and will deal with the apparent anemic efforts placed on disaster response and recovery. Around that same time there were flooding issues that struck parts of Massachusetts that had an equally devastating effect. And some of those same issues arose. Like how do you evacuate the elderly and disabled citizens who require assistance? How can we continue to allow insurance companies to not honor their policies? And, what is the role of government in help people rebuild their lives and communities?

LM: Where can people go to keep up with your campaign?

KJ: People will have a chance to follow the campaign via our website

http://KJ-08.COM/.Com We will also have a youtube channel that allows people to submit homemade ads that may get used during the campaign along with telling us what are the issues that they want to hear discussed. As much as it is about the candidate it really is about the people it has always been about the people.

LM: Any last words?

KJ: People need to retake the power of their government. Get involved. Be active. Vote for the candidate based on the issues. And if you live in Massachusetts and you want to hear and learn more about me and the issues I care about go to the website to set up town hall meetings, house parties, or other events.

by Marlon Crump/PNN

"There is nothing more frightening, more scary, more terrifying than someone opening and coming through your door..........unannounced."

Last year the San Francisco Chronicle ran a month long series entitled "Use of Force" in which they chronicled past events of misconduct by the San Francisco Police Department. At the time, my case was still being investigated by the police oversight agency, the Office of Citizens Complaints (O.C.C) so nothing was written regarding my own brutal encounter with S.F.P.D members.

Just last month, the two-year anniversary of my worst police encounter occurred. On October 7th 2005 a dozen members of the S.F.P.D. stormed the AllStar Hotel, single room occupancy on 16th/Folsom Streets, where I still live.

It was almost midnight. I was in my room, preparing to leave to pick up some food from the store with my food stamp card when suddenly my door lock clicked opened The next thing I knew, I was starring down the barrels of numerous guns carried by a squad of officers yelling obscenities at me. This is an image that will be forever seared into my memory and one that still haunts me to this day.

One of the officers was a young short Filipino man, with a receding hairline named Officer Angel G. Lozano, I would later learn he had falsely prompted his assisting fellow officers and their commanding personnel of his "possible location of a black male armed robbery suspect, wearing a long black leather coat" at the AllStar. Prior to his "capture" of me, he was with another fellow officer, a short Chinese man with a dark crew-cut named Raymond Lee.

Both officers swore to the AllStar Hotel Resident Manager, Robert Williams that I was a suspect in a robbery and that they needed a spare room key for my unit. By this time, nearly a dozen officers had arrived onto the premises. Despite the protests by Mr. Williams, he finally relented and relinquished my spare room key to the officers. All of this was occurring as I sat inside my room preparing to go to the supermarket, unaware of the near-death experience that awaited me and forever changed my life.

After a negative identification by the witnesses and victims of the armed robbery incident that took place in the area, Officer Angel Lozano was ordered on his walkie-talkie to let me go, and he gave me back my spare room key.

The very moment the police stormed my SRO, I knew that every single police procedural protocol, was shattered along with my own humility, civil and privacy rights. Everything in my life was torn apart in that instance just like the rip inside of my long leather black trench coat.

I needed to seek retribution from a legal perspective, as I wasn't the type to always march with a picket sign, or violently fight back. Justice doesn't ultimately mean having to resort to illegal or violent means. I would speak out against the injustices I endured by speaking truth, even if it meant a long hard struggle.

After making a complaint with the Office of Citizen's Complaints, I filed a California Government Tort Claim against the City and County of San Francisco, on October 14th, 2005. An investigator named Sandra Garcia was assigned to my claim and about two months after the initial filing and the incident, it was denied.

"I spoke to a sergeant of the Mission District Station and they stated there was probable cause to detain you and no officer did any damage to your coat. He recommended that your claim be denied, Mr. Crump."

I really wasn’t surprised by this initial denial. Throughout my ordeal, I’ve learned that just about any city government agency and police department will go through any lengths, even if it's a violation of state or even federal law to conceal any of it's member's wrongdoings, and ultimately to discourage a complainant from demanding accountability.

I began attending a weekly meeting at San Francisco City Hall held every Wednesday by seven members of the Board of San Francisco Police Commissioners, which governs the SFPD and the Office of Citizen's Complaints. I also learned that unwarranted intrusions into an S.R.O tenant's room happened frequently and I decided to raise this issue to the police commissioners.

During the near two years I frequently attended, my case of unwarranted action by S.F.P.D members was sustained last year, and I pursued a civil action against San Francisco as a pro se litigant this year. I was also anticipating some sort of disciplinary action to be brought towards Lozano, Lee, and the rest of the officers of the Mission District Station that took part in that course of action.

Unfortunately, because of last year's right-winged/patriotic U.S. Supreme Court ruling of Copley Press in San Diego, a ruling that prevents a citizen from accessing a police officer's complaint history, or being present at a police review hearing during an intended disciplinary action upon an officer accused of misconduct; I may never know what discipline, if any was ever imposed upon Officer Lozano and his assisting personnel officers. This very ruling still causes a great controversy.

I did, however, discover that Officer Angel G. Lozano has a past history of misconduct. After viewing an old archive last year on S.F.GOV website, I found out that there was possibly disciplinary action against him in May and December of 2001, but of course, with Copley Press and certain provisions in State Law and the Peace Officer's Bill of Rights, I was able to access very little.

It took me nearly seven months to even obtain a police report regarding the officer's conduct upon me. I got received the practiced responses over and over again. "Oh it's a slow process, or it might be privileged information” or “your case is still being investigated.” It was only after constant complaining at the police commission hearings that I finally received a copy of the original from Hall of Justice.

After examining the document, I was even more certain of Officers Lozano and Lee’s lying. A huge paragraph in the "Narrative" section of the report, regarding the dialogue between Lee, Lozano, and resident manager Robert Williams was blackened out. Why? Because there was something of an improper procedural protocol and of an incriminatory nature they tried to desperately conceal, and this was confirmed after I received another copy of the same police incident report before the year 2006 ended.

This particular report showed the paragraph in which the "sworn" statements by Lozano and Lee were that the suspect was wearing a brown jacket, tan pants, he stood about 5'7-5'8 tall with a baseball cap, which was completely different of my description as I stand 6'3 wore a long black leather coat, white dress shirt and black slacks. The report also failed to mention that the key was demanded repeatedly from Mr. Robert Williams.

The common denominator between myself, and this robbery suspect was only the color of our skin.

Officer Angel G. Lozano apparently has a history of brutality and misconduct according to insider sources. Lozano's lack of proper procedural protocols is a potentially dangerous threat towards every citizen, but particularly for those living in an S.R.O Hotel, or in a community that is considered “poor” or “of color.”

The brutality I endured at the hands of a poorly trained, highly unprofessional, and possibly violent police officer could have happened to anybody and with fatal results. That is why I continue to fight against this injustice by representing myself. I cannot risk turning over my case and my humility to the City, state or some unconcerned lawyer.

I urge all of those who have suffered a similar fate in our criminal injustice system to speak out and fight their own battle. We cannot continue to allow our safety, humility and well being to be threatened at the hands of law enforcement officials.

by Queenanndi/PNN

"I believe the children are the future... Teach them well and let them lead the way"

After a refreshing visit with the students at Logan high school in Union City, this age-old saying proves far too true.

In the cooling month of October Tiny, aka Lisa Gray-Garcia, poverty scholar in residence at POOR Magazine and author of Criminal of Poverty: Growing up Homeless in America was invited by esteemed poet and indigenous Philipino scholar Oscar Penaranda, who is a teacher of Tagolog (one of several indigenous languages from the Philipines) to James Logan High School. Because Tiny does not practice individualism in ANYthing she does, including her readings and speaking tours, she invited fellow poverty scholars Ruyate, author of Not Even in Therapy/Recovering Poetically and myself, Queenanndi, POOR Press author of Life, Struggle and Reflection, to join her in one of POOR Magazine's revolutionary Youth in Media workshops with over 300 high school students and to hear their scholarship, thoughts and experiences.

There it was, all these youngstas from all different backgrounds, cultures and colors, with two things in common, same enemy, same struggle. When given the opportunity to shine with their heart felt "slam bioz," the whole REGION brightened as the heavy stone slab of pain and oppression lifted off the children through spoken word, and indeed, they did their thang.

As I looked into the audience, I asked a question, "If you had the chance to do the world over to make it a better place-how would you make change?" The responses ranged from feeding and housing the poor, to ending bloodshed, greed and war. Again, proven that if you are taught-early awareness through peace what I call "seed planting" the seed will grow into maturity with awareness in mind, and peace at heart. There will always be opposition, whether you do the wrong, or right thing.

The students' dreams of a better amerikkka were totally different from our country's present condition. I told the students that just because this country's foundation is bloody and violent, doesn't mean that our mentality and way of life has to be. Many kids had a puzzled look on their faces when I stated the fact that this country was founded on violence. But when I referred to President Bush as a "gangsta" in his merciless disregard and extermination of people here, and in Iraq and said, "Children, gangstas DO make the world go round," the children's nodding heads told me they fully understood.

As Tiny, Ruyata, and myself continued to awaken the revolutionary spirits within the Logan masses, we were overwhelmed by how in-tune the kids were to the ways of the world, and how brilliantly they expressed it. Not one child said that slaughter, scapegoating, or sadistic sacrifices were on their menu...If the world was theirs to do over.

For a sample of the work produced in this youth in media workshop click on po' poets project or paste http://poormagazine.org/index.cfm?L1=news&category=8&story=1871 into your browser.

by Sam Drew/PNN

"We are not afraid of these politicians who are trying to criminalize our youth," said Renee Saucedo to a crowd gathered in front of San Francisco City Hall to protest San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera's recent gang injunction. Approximately ten days ago, a San Francisco judge upheld the City Attorney's application for the injunction, which prohibits certain individuals' presence within the injunction zone.

We were there to speak out against these racist, criminalizing polices. "These injunctions only cause more racial profiling and police harassment against Latino and African-American communities," Luis Aroche, a youth advocate with the Mission Community Response Network, said to the crowd filled with youths, teachers and scholars from neighborhoods across the Bay Area.

To clearly and symbolic illustrate our demands, we had decided to confront City Attorney Dennis Herrera in his office in City Hall and serve him with a symbolic injunction notice ordering him to stay out of our neighborhoods, which include the Mission, Bayview/Hunter’s Point and the Western Addition.

Also included on the injunction notice were six demands from the community:

- Clear and fair criteria to get off the injunction list.

- Guaranteed support services for those on the injunction list.

- A clear process to get off the injunction list that does not involve people having to serve as informants.

- An official investigation of police misconduct and racial profiling during the enforcement of the injunction.

- A public commitment from city officials to implement a long-term violence prevention plan that addresses the root causes of violence.

- An outlaw of future gang injunctions in San Francisco.

According to Sandy Banks Los Angeles Times staff writer, "The LAPD has intensified it's war on gangs with stepped up patrols and tough enforcement of a year old court injunction that allows the arrest of Grape Street Crips if they congregate in the project or on surrounding streets. Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who represents the area, said her office has been deluged with complaints from residents who say officers' heavy handed tactics are saddling young men with arrest records and increasing hostility towards the police. At her prodding, LAPD Chief of Police, William J. Bratton and City Attorney, Rocky Delgadillo have pledged to review the injunction process."

We were calling for not just a review, but an end to the gang injunction in our neighborhoods, streets, parks and communities.

As we walked through City Hall to meet Mr. Herrera, I noticed how much the building resembles a mausoleum with its cold marble interior and how the presence of tortured spirits being held against their will permeated the environment. In contrast, the heat that emanated from the young people seeking an end to this injunction added life to the desolate, soul less environment.

One after another, we piled into the City Attorney's Office to show our unity. The receptionist looked extremely concerned by the presence of all these Bay Area citizens exercising their rights.

After leading a chant Renee Saucedo announced the purpose of our visit and requested Mr. Herrera to accept our papers. After a few seconds of awkward silence the spokesperson for Mr. Herrera said he was busy in a meeting and couldn't come out to receive his papers.

I could tell by how tight the spokeswoman had her arms clenched that they weren't used to having to deal with that many citizens. The law enforcement officer who stood next to Herrera's spokesperson told us, "He won't be coming out because no one made an appointment."

Renee Saucedo swiftly responded "Dennis Herrera didn't make an appointment with us when he started the gang injunction." Her response was met with applause and cheers. Because Mr. Herrera refused to meet with our group, an earful of scholarship was given to the nervous spokeswoman, as many people spoke to how this injunction is a policy only aimed at criminalizing young people.

Although we weren't allowed to see Mr. Herrera, we decided to continue on in the belly of the beast and meet with our elected officials. After all they do work for us. We went into the offices of Supervisors Peskin, Chu, Sandoval, Amminano, Dufty, Maxwell, Alito-Pier and Daly. A copy of the injunction was given to each one’s staff person along with the reasons we wanted the gang injunction to be stopped.

A Southern California newspaper reported that its review of the impact of a local gang injunction showed that nearly 80% of the gang members named in that injunction had been convicted of at least one crime since the injunctions were imposed. More than half of those convicted committed crimes in the injunctions target neighborhoods, indicating that gang members neither ended their criminal acts nor moved away after being served with court orders to do so and that these gang injunctions do little to decrease gang violence.

As Nancy Hernandez, (Homies Organized in the Mission to Empower Youth) said, "This gang injunction is attacking a symptom of the problem not the root cause. The problems are poverty, gentrification, Lack of programs, lack of jobs and after school programs."

As we walked down the spotless halls of power I was reminded of the words uttered by Minister Christopher Muhammad when he spoke at a rally about San Francisco politics, he said, "They use the word gentrification but the real word is ethnic cleansing, to remove poor people of color in every neighborhood."

by Vivian Hain/PNN

Thanksgiving, a holiday which glamorizes the ruthless colonization of America, is more of an economic hardship for many low-income families like mine than a holiday to over-indulge in food and drink on. Well, today, I went to collect my "holiday food basket," which is dispersed from my local food bank to either a non-profit agency or a food pantry, usually a local church in my neighborhood where I can get a food subsidy for a holiday meal like Thanksgiving. This year, I collected my holiday food basket from a non-profit agency.

When I went to pick it up, I was given a small cardboard box full of random canned and dry food that had nothing to do with Thanksgiving Day like dry macaroni, cans of pork n' beans, soup, sloppy Joe mix and tuna, along with a small gray plastic bag full of a couple of small potatoes, sweet potatoes and onions. What was most unbelievable is that instead of being given an actual turkey or a grocery store voucher so that I could go get a turkey for my family, I was given two small frozen low quality Sun-Land brand chickens! I was really upset and perplexed by the fact that this is what poor adults and families are given for the holidays from their local food banks when these families are already facing multiple economic challenges during a time of the season when capitalist values tend to be more important than insuring that everyone gets a proper and nutritious meal for the holidays.

Last year, the same thing happened. I got a "holiday food basket" donated to me from a non-profit and I collected another one from my local food pantry (church). Both places gave me the exact same thing; a bunch of random food that had no relevance to what Thanksgiving is supposed to represent at the dinner table and two Sun-Land young chickens that have a label on them that says: Some giblets may be missing. May contain up to 6 percent retained water. Also, when I attempted to cook one of these low grade quality chickens last year, they had a lot of fat on them and even still had some feathers attached to them too! My friend from Eastern Europe even got out his cigarette lighter and set fire to the feathers on the raw chicken and told me: "This is what we do back in the old country, while sparks flew from the damp feathers as a burning smell filled the air." The chickens had so much fat on them, that I refused to eat them and even ended throwing one whole chicken away after cooking it!

I phoned my local food bank to ask them why they are giving poor adults and families chickens instead of turkeys for Thanksgiving? Their response was that because of the Bird Flu epidemic, there is currently a mass shortage of turkeys. Hence, the Bird Flu is in South East Asia, where turkeys do not exist, but chickens do!

I was also told that there were very few turkey donations given this year (I suppose this could be said for last year too!) and that they had only received 500 turkeys and gave the majority of them primarily to agencies that feed a large amount of people on Thanksgiving Day. I was also told that currently, there is a lack of federal funding for food banks from the US Government (thanks to Bush Incorporated) and that the supermarkets have first dibs on the turkeys, so whatever is left over, the food banks get. I wasn't convinced by this information and later found out that much of it was incorrect.

This problem seems to cross the bridge here in the Bay Area. I was told by my POOR News Network colleagues who live in San Francisco that they were also given chickens instead of turkeys for Thanksgiving just like here in Alameda County. I was told by Laure McElroy, a PNN correspondent who also works with Homeless Prenatal in San Francisco that they had to resort to giving food referrals for "chicken Thanksgiving meals" from their non-profit agency too.

I would go to a local supermarket where I found so many turkeys, literally pouring over the frozen display bin and that the supermarket had marked them down half price in order to get rid of them. So, I bought my turkey with my EBT food stamp card, while thinking about the many unfortunate low-income adults and families who got that same "holiday food basket" for Thanks-Taking and didn't have food stamps or any choice, but to eat "chicken FEED" this year in the wealthiest nation in the world where food is always plentiful.

by Sam Drew/PNN

"I'm trying to get my son back!" was Sandra Thompson's response to my mundane question about her well-being. Sandra has suffered through a series of emotional setbacks that would have crushed a weaker person. But her dogged determinism for justice and strong belief in God have kept her thinking positive

I first met Sandra at POOR Magazine's monthly Community Newsroom meeting in downtown San Francisco. She riveted the audience with her story of being made a pariah for reporting her sexual abuse to the proper authorities and the removal of her beloved son by Child Protective Services(CPS) and the judicial system.

She was attending San Francisco City College working hard to acquire her AA in Criminal Justice. "I wanted to get a degree in Criminal Justice to inspire the youth. I worked myself from homelessness," she said proudly. "But I have a past, I came out of the Foster Care System and later got into juvenile hall, I then got involved with gangs. I spent 6 years at Chowchilla Prison for involuntary manslaughter. I did not do it but I was convinced to take a polygraph test. I was young and wasn't educated about my civil rights . But I've changed my life,"? she said seriously.

Sandra exhibited pride, as she told me she was on schedule to graduate in the Spring of 2008 with a high G.P.A. But her mood quickly changed as she began describing what happened with one of the instructors. While she was working on acquiring her GED, a math teacher offered to tutor Sandra because as she says she "was weak in Algebra and Geometry."?

"He said we would have to go back to his place to study. That is where he attempted to rape me,"? she said her eyes filled with rage and sadness. Sandra did what people are told to do after this type of assault "I reported the incident to Affirmative Action and then I went to the Chancellor."? Sandra spoke with someone at Affirmative Action and then with the Dean and the Chancellors office, but her charges were dismissed. "They sent me a letter that they hired an investigator but they couldn't substantiate my charges,"? she added.

But this denial of justice didn't stop Sandra from speaking out. "I was put on Disciplinary probation because of my disruption of complaining to the chancellors office." Then according to Sandra she was suspended indefinitely for speaking out at the meeting of Chancellors.

Sandra is not only speaking out on her behalf but also for other students,"A lot of other students on campus mention that instructors have done this to them too. But there is no support for students on campus,"? she said.

With all this drama swirling around Sandra her thoughts remain focused on her seven-year-old son Emmanuel. Sandra smiled warmly as she told me, "His name comes from the Bible."

But her smile quickly disappeared as she continued telling the story of her son. After learning that her husband was giving Emmanuel medication behind her back and that he had threatened him, she took her son to the police station and she was given an Emergency Protection Order. On September 7th, Sandra arrived in court under the impression that she was attending a restraining order hearing.

She sighed as she continued with the painful memory. "But when I arrived [they] told me it was not a restraining order hearing but that it was my custody hearing for a CPS report that said I convinced my son to make false accusations against his father," she said.

At court that day Sandra was shocked to hear that C.P.S. would be removing her son because she was "withholding his medication"? and she was told that this was "not an open case."

Today Sandra's husband has sole legal custody of her son and she has no parental rights, as she is struggling with two court cases. Her current attorney will remove himself in the beginning of December and as of now Sandra, like so many other parents struggling with C.P.S. has no legal support for her next hearing on December 21st.

Yet with all the hardships Sandra has encountered she remains upbeat as she defiantly says, "I'm a survivor of domestic abuse, nothing will stop me from achieving my goals, I want to work with women in prison; I want to make sure what happened to me doesn't happen to other single mothers. I will not be intimated...If you do not stand up and speak out for yourself, things will never change."

If you can assist Sandra Thomsen call (415) 351.9988 or visit the website www.freewebs.com/comelooksee

by Marlon Crump/PNN

"I just want everyone here in San Francisco to know that I do NOT support the gang injunctions," native San Franciscan and recent mayoral candidate Lonnie Holmes told me in an interview for POOR Magazine.

A juvenile probation officer and father of five, Mr. Holmes expressed his disbelief to me of the extremely secretive, racist and classist gang injunctions that have recently been implemented in San Francisco, as well as shared his views and opinions on many of the dire issues facing San Franciscans today.

I met Mr. Holmes on a relatively warm November morning at the Harvest Urban Market in the SOMA district of the City. A well-dressed African-descent man, Mr. Holmes greeted me warmly and asked if I wanted to take a ride with him while he campaigned.

We drove around his native neighborhood, the Western Addition Fillmore District, Grove and Hayes St, and just briefly at the Ella Hill Hutch, to greet his fellow colleagues and community members. A San Francisco Police Department squad car yielded to us as we passed the oncoming traffic, and Mr. Holmes gave a friendly acknowledgment to the officers, shouting out his run for the next Mayor of San Francisco, California.

Mr. Holmes discussed his passion to help the youth, his family background, and his plan towards reshaping the Redevelopment Agency of its plans towards gentrification of the Bayview Hunter's Point, as San Francisco had done to the Fillmore, many years earlier. I was shocked and saddened to hear that his father, his aunt, and eight cousins died during the Jonestown Massacre in the South American country of Guyana.

Mr. Holmes believes San Francisco is on of the verge of a governance disaster if there is no substantive campaign for the city's chief executive office. "If thousands of homeowners and renters are pushed out of the city by misguided policies and inattentive leadership, it would be just as big a tragedy as Jonestown," he said.

We both expressed our feelings of resentment towards the rampant violence that has targeted communities of color, the unquestionable lack of employment opportunities for the youth, homelessness, and the gang injunctions.

After about an hour of driving around, we returned to the Harvest Urban Market to continue our interview. Holmes stated that he believed in social economical change, and violence intervention by providing youth employment opportunities.

Earlier that day, Mr. Holmes was at the scene of a murdered 20-year-old male, at Garlington Court in the Bayview Hunter's Point District. Though he felt that the youth nationwide, and predominately in communities of color were on the serious path of destruction, Holmes also felt that the onslaught of gang injunctions was not the solution at all towards violence reduction, anywhere in the country.

He discussed the beginnings of the gang injunctions in Los Angeles and its spread all across the nation to New York.

"The San Francisco City Attorney's Office is using the band aid approach, rather than treating the entire body. This city has invested a lot money into surveillance cameras, instead of providing much more valuable resources and support towards every community affected with the highest arrest rates," said Mr. Holmes.

Mr. Holmes continued, "Crime can be a symptom caused by poverty, and people are being left out of the American Dream...San Francisco is a very wealthy town, being the Mecca for the wealthy, but it should be for everyone."

Lonnie Holmes stated, however clearly to me that "Corporate Media will not get the privilege of coverage of my opinions, or stories of the issues that we're currently facing within this city, today. Only grassroots organizations of alternative media like POOR Magazine will have that privilege to cover these stories."

My final question to Mr. Holmes was if he could have a face-to-face conversation with current Mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, regarding these issues, what would he say to him. The eyebrows of Holmes shifted downwards, a frown on his face was formed, and the tone of pleasantry slightly changed, at the mere mention of Newsom.

"What, you're asking me what I would say to Gavin Newsom regarding these issues? Let me ask you something, Marlon, you ever talked to a brick wall? Newsom's Administration has been truly ineffective to all of these issues, so what's the point?�" he asked me, as I chuckled to myself.

Hearing Mr. Holmes speak so eloquently and openly about all of these issues made me realize how refreshing it is to finally speak to someone who listens and answers rather than continuing to try and talk to the brick wall of the Newsom administration.

by Dale Ray/PNN

I remember waking up each morning to the strong stench of piss all around me and the cold ground beneath me. I would awake with my mouth feeling like cotton, as I tried to lift myself up off the hard concrete.

I lived homeless in San Francisco for many years. I was addicted to crack for 20 years and alcohol for just as long. I still remember my many sleepless nights on the street. Sometimes I would go to the Transbay Terminal just to get out of the cold and there would be twenty or thirty men beside me trying to sleep and stay warm.

These painful memories crept back into my mind, as I read about the future plans for a new Transbay Terminal in San Francisco. I thought about all those homeless men, women and children whose only safe refuge is the Terminal. What will happen to them if the new Transit Center is built?

The proposed plan for the new Transbay Transit Center is being called the Grand Central Station of the West Coast. They say it will be a transit hub for a metropolitan
“New York City style San Francisco,” but how will this city look, and whom will it be for?

In the discussion around the new Transbay Transit Center no one is talking about what will happen to the many homeless people that walk through the current Transbay Terminal doors to find a safe shelter. It is a story that the mainstream media and corporate developers are ignoring.

C.W. Nevius attempted to address the issue in his September 18th article in the San Francisco Chronicle entitled, "Guards, homeless form odd kind of community at Transbay Terminal,” yet he failed to make any connections or see the issue for what it is; a human rights issue.

He did not critically address the issue of what will happen to the homeless people who take refuge at the terminal, as he wrote, "If all goes according to plan, by 2014 a glittering, towering Transbay Transit Center will be erected in the heart of San Francisco. Designers say the tower will not only be a transportation hub, but send a message as a symbolic gateway to the city."

The message San Francisco and the new Transit Center’s supporters, like Nevius, are sending is that this City cares more about its appearance and attraction to wealthy visitors than it does for its own people. Rather than providing what’s necessary for those here to survive the City will be catering to rich outsiders.

The new Transit Center will set the tone for a new generation in the City that will increasingly view homeless people as a problem to push away rather than a symptom of much more rooted problems, such as the lack of services and resources in this city. San Francisco has a reputation as being a liberal minded city, yet its 2007 and San Francisco still considers poor people a problem that need to be cleaned up and out to make way for the rich.

Many people wrongly believe that all homeless people can find sleeping space in shelters if they simply try and that there is no need for people to seek shelter in places like the Terminal. From my own experience I know this is not true.

When I was desperate I would stop in at the McMillan Center on 39th and Fell Street. People go in there to get off the streets but you can’t go to sleep. They only have chairs. When I would start falling asleep someone would come around and say, "You can't sleep in here." All I wanted was a little rest, "I'm tired," I would say to them. But it was always the same. Shelters are no place to live. I preferred my spot in the alley near the corner of Seventh and Market. I along with many other people prefer the streets or the Transbay Terminal to McMillan or other shelters. As a recent Coalition on Homelessness article stated, "While the City no longer officially tracks “turn-aways” from shelters, one Coalition survey of shelter reservation sites found an average of 50 individuals turned away a day from shelter."

San Francisco does not have enough resources and safe places for homeless people to turn to and therefore, many are forced to sleep outside and in public places, like the Transbay Terminal. And often, in lieu of safe housing, houseless folks are cited and arrested for the sole act of being homeless.

In his article, Nevius quotes Charles Drew, a man who frequents the terminal. Drew calls the security guards there his family. In response Nevius ends the article with, "I've been trying to decide, is that the saddest thing I've ever heard, or the most uplifting?" Nevius does not conclude with any kind of analysis of the situation and certainly does not address the deeper question of why in the richest country in the world people are forced to create spaces to sleep and homes where none are provided?

Like Drew, I lost my family when I started living on the streets and when my addiction was at its worst. I lost everything. I lost my sense of integrity and morals. I did not have many people looking out for me on the streets and I was down and out every day.

Once after a night of heavy drinking, I met a couple of officers while I was singing the Nat King Cole song Mona Lisa. After that night they came around three to four times a week and started looking out for me. They became like brothers to me and often brought me food, and clothes, and once a pair of boots. Those two cops kept telling me I could do better, I could leave the life of an addict. They told me I was killing myself on the streets. They were my only constant source of encouragement. "You can do this," they kept saying to me.

I was lucky to have met those two cops. This city needs more people who are empathetic to those struggling on the streets. This city is in dire need of more places and resources to help the homeless instead of sweeping the problem and the homeless out of the streets and under the carpet.

I know what its like to have no where to go and to have to sleep on the street or in a place like the Transbay Terminal. Too many times it was my only option. The people who are still sleeping in the Terminal will be displaced and swept out of the City if the proposed plan is passed. These people will be forced out of their only shelter for a new glittering, towering symbol of the City’s wealth.

Dale Ray, has been living clean and sober for the last five years and has just graduated from Session 1 of the Race, Poverty and Media Justice Institute at POOR Magazine. He will be releasing his book To Hell and Back published on POOR Press in February of 2008. For more information on his book or to order a copy, please call 415-863-6306.

To view Nevius' full article go to:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/09/18/BAOBS820J...

To learn more about the Redevelopment plans for the New Center you can visit the Transit Transbay Center Website at:
www.transbaycenter.org/transbay

The Transbay Join Powers Authority Citizens Advisory Committee (TJPA CAC) meets monthly on the second Tuesday of every month at 5:30 pm at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission Street (at 3rd Street), San Francisco, CA, in the 2nd Floor Conference Room. TJPA CAC meetings are open to the public. Send an e-mail to cac@transbaycenter.org to be added to the CAC mailing list to receive copies of upcoming agendas.

Currently TJPA CAC has no voting members who represent the homeless community.

by tiny/PNN

"Peddlers, panhandlers and prostitutes, they all need to be cleaned out [of Manhattan]." The first time I heard Rudy Giuliani speak was on a NBC nightly news broadcast. It was 1996. I was living in Oakland, Calif., at the time -- 3,000 miles away from Manhattan, where, as mayor, Giuliani was implementing his "clean-up campaign." But the sting of his speech still scared me.

It was the first time I had heard hygienic metaphors to describe poor people like me who were surviving in an underground street-based economy. Rudy Giuliani had become mayor of New York City on a campaign that constructed a new scapegoat for all of America's crime problems: "the squeegee man" (aka a person who cleans car windows at stop lights).

Giuliani was emboldened with "the broken window" philosophy, which claimed that if broken windows remain unfixed for a period of time the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it's unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside.

The theory was promoted by the hyperconservative Manhattan Institute and was already litmus tested by N.Y. Police chief Bill Bratten. In his now-infamous statement, Giuliani publicly linked three street-based economies and communities with dirt or trash: They were something to be cleaned up as a means to create the perfect U.S. city.

Under his rule, ridding Manhattan of the newly designated and oxymoronic "quality of life" criminals such as panhandlers, recyclers, window washers (aka squeegee men), sex workers, hot dog peddlers and street artists was the way to have a crime-free, user-friendly, corporate dollar-fueled city.

All of these memories came to me as I watched the little-seen but important documentary Giuliani Time. The two-hour-and-20-minute feature, produced and directed by Kevin Keating, uses a series of in-depth interviews with policy makers, advocates, sociologists and urban planners to reveal how Giuliani's policies during his reign from 1994-2001 led to extreme and dangerous police empowerment and subsequent decimation of human and civil rights of poor people and communities of color. The film shows how he created a template for criminalization that would be eventually emulated and implemented by mayors across the country -- from Atlanta to San Francisco.

The movie begins with a look at Giuliani's family roots with crime and vice: His uncle Harold was a loan shark out of a bar he ran in Brooklyn and eventually did hard time in Sing Sing. It then follows Giuliani's ambitious rise from state attorney general to a mayor who appropriated as his own the "quality of life" crime campaign from then-police chief Bratton.

The film shows a somewhat dense series of interviews outlining Giuliani's draconian strategy of using New York police to attack and manipulate the short-lived mayoral run of David Dinkins. Once he achieved his position as mayor, Giuliani began an onslaught of race-based profiling and harassment of African-American communities in New York by the NYPD.

Simultaneously, he launched a campaign to cut people off welfare en masse, regardless of its impact on poor families, to have homeless people considered criminals, and to have the simple acts of sitting, standing and sleeping outdoors and surviving on a street-based economy designated as crimes.

His welfare policies succeeded in making Giuliani the mayor best known for getting 600,000 welfare recipients off welfare and into a new form of slavery, "workfare." Workfare, is the hard labor (that isn't considered real work by the welfare system and most of society for that matter) one must do to get the minimal cash aid distributed by welfare. This includes doing previously union-held jobs like crack-of-dawn street sweeping and public restroom cleaning, and other forms of menial labor, for much less than minimum wage.

As this documentary revealed, Giuliani's police policies resulted in the specific profiling, abuse and arrest of men of color. The film shows the horrors that resulted from a newly emboldened police force -- including the brutalization of Hatian immigrant Abner Louima and the murder of Liberian immigrant Amadou Diallo.

As the daughter of a poor, homeless woman of color who worked on the street to survive in L.A., Oakland and San Francisco, I have felt the direct impact of locally implemented Giuliani-derived criminalizing policies over the last 10 years such as the Business Improvement District (BID), which in San Francisco was based in Union Square but modeled after Giuliani's BID in Times Square. Each BID includes a squared-off area that is policed by a private police force that cites, harasses and profiles everyone selling, sitting or standing who appears to be "poor." With the BIDs come the so-called "community courts," which are courts dedicated to the adjudication of "poverty crimes," i.e, selling without a license, trespassing, sleeping, urinating and other low-level crimes of poverty.

After viewing this documentary, I became even more terrified of Giuliani's impact. Rarely has one man so successfully harnessed the hatred and ignorance of the U.S. public for poor people and people of color. And rarely has the connection between race, class, xenophobia and ableism been so clearly played out in legislative actions such as the BIDs, community courts and overall police harassment of poor people that reverberate today in cities across the United States and is referred to by economic justice organizers as the "Manhattanization" of a city.

Quite by accident I was able to witness firsthand the impact of Giulani-like policies in action in Georgia. As a member of a delegation to the U.S. Social Forum, I visited Atlanta. Upon entering one of their business improvement districts, aka a Disney-like mall "town" that included chain stores and restaurants, I was met with a small corporate-logo covered police car filled with "officers" who wore cartoon-like bounty hunter hats. When some of my group and myself attempted to lean against a light pole and make a cell phone call we were asked to move because our leaning created a "perception of loitering."

As a low-income resident of San Francisco, another one of thousands of U.S. cities following Giuliani's model for "cleanliness," I grapple every day with the new science fiction-like world of where to sleep, sit, stand or dwell in a public place as a poor person when all of those things can be a crime. Where, even if you don't "look homeless," the mere perception of loitering is a citable offense.

Like some of the worst and bloodiest horror movies, you want to cringe and look away from Giuliani Time, but hold on to your seat, watch, look and listen carefully, because this man is running for president, and we must act now or his new form of fascism masked as "cleanliness" will be the norm for the entire United States.