Story Archives 2009

by Staff Writer

by Tony Robles/National Poverty Racism and Resistance Report (NPRRR)

"We'd like to take what we're doing in Arkansas to other states. It would be great if every state had a citizen's lobbying group", says Bruce Lockett, co-chair of Citizen's First Congress (CFC), a grassroots organization based in Arkansas. CFC is made up of organizers and activists from 44 different organizations working together to shape public policy and to put power in the hands of low-income and working class Arkansonians in a state where big business wields so much power.

CFC is at the forefront of issues such as prison reform, economic justice, health care, Global warming and increasing the state’s minimum wage. Lockett sees Arkansas as a state where things are moving forward. "CFC is one of the few grassroots lobbying organizations in the state. Most people don’t have the resources or ability to lobby. It takes money and lots of logistical work".

CFC practices what POOR Magazine calls interdependence, rather than the cult of independence. CFC has coalesced into a formidable organization bringing together the most important of resources --the community. CFC successfully bridges organizers and activists from different fronts of struggle and unifies their efforts to form public policy in the state legislature.

CFC is a visionary organization that is thinking both locally and globally. The organization recently brought together scientists, environmentalists and scholars to lobby the Arkansas legislature to study the effects of global warming. As a result, the state assembly created a global warming commission to look at this global phenomenon and to develop strategies to ameliorate the damage being done to our planet. The corporate power elite in the state has power to shape policy towards pollution - a policy damaging to our basic human right to water and clean air. "We have a large group of environmentalists in the CFC", says Lockett. "We pushed for environmentally friendly technology. We have a windmill plant making windmills for the Texas market right now".

Through the lobbying efforts of the diverse organizations that make up the CFC, the Arkansas Department of agriculture was formed. Small farmers are now taking advantage of the many subsidies and programs via the federal government—opportunities denied them due to non-existent state body to disburse those funds. Thanks to the efforts of the CFC, small farmers can partake in subsidies that the larger farmers monopolized.

I met Bruce at a fundraising seminar in San Francisco a few months back. He was a guy you don't meet too often at fundraising workshops and seminars - warm, down to earth - real. We connected immediately. We talked about raising money and how hard it is for organizations to make it - especially ones that do not sell their souls to the non-profit industrial complex.

I asked him about homelessness in his state. He indicated that there are problems but they are limited to the bigger cities. "Little Rock has the biggest problem when it comes to homelessness. Arkansas is primarily rural. We have a population of 2.5 million in the entire state. The majority of our people live in rural areas". He cited Acorn (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) as being at the forefront of the state's housing issues.

In 2007 the CFC lobbied the legislature to focus on HIV/AIDS. The state formed an HIV task force this year in response to the disproportionate cases of HIV/AIDS plaguing women, African-Americans and Latinos. A task force’s findings will be released next month.

Predatory lending is a problem in poor communities with check cashing establishments offering payday loans - charging exorbitant interest rates, getting rich on the backs of the poor. That day is over. "We got Attorney General Dustin McDaniel to work on predatory lending with all the high fees", said Bruce. "Pay day loans were banned and Arkansas shut down the check cashing places". Check cashing establishments were charging 371% interest on these loans - higher than the 17% the state allows.

CFC is an example of interdependence - elders, scholars, activists, youths and environmentalists working together for the overall good of the community. As Bruce Lockett says, "People see strength in numbers".

by Tiny aka Lisa Gray-Garcia/POOR Magazine-PNN

The officers were waiting, loaded firearms dangling from their wastes, steel filled chests puffed out, glassy stares behind helmets, all three thousand of them - or maybe there were only 8? One got the woman from behind, one got her from the front... they knocked her down, they physically harmed her. She was one woman alone. She was a journalist doing her job. She was attacked by the police for no reason at all. Her only crime was being a media producer in a hostile location.

The story you just heard could be the well-known story of Democracy Now's Amy Goodman's experience of police terror at the Republican National Convention. It also could be the rarely heard story of KPFA long-time volunteer and media producer Nadra Foster's experience of police terror at the KPFA offices in Berkeley last month.

Just a few days before when Amy Goodman was experiencing the fascist silencing of her powerful voice and that of her fellow Democracy Now colleagues by what POOR Magazine calls the po'LICE, Nadra Foster, a mother of two, an apprenticeship graduate and 12 year long unpaid media producer at KPFA was experiencing a similar form of po'LICE terror at the KPFA station in Berkeley because she was allegedly using the phone for personal calls.

This is where the similarities end. When the Amy Goodman story broke, there was national news coverage, which was great, because it detailed the ways in which the fascist police state we are all living in is only increasing. When the Nadra Foster story broke, it wasn't considered real news by the powers that be inside KPFA and Pacifica, including Amy Goodman.

My questions go to the heart of this difference and this idea that somehow things that happen to some people constitute real-ness, that some people are real, that some media is real, that some perpetrations of abuse are real, that some use of fascist force is ok, sanctioned, and alright because we are doing it and its about us, and that its for "legitimate" reasons.

All of my conscious colleagues at KPFA, Democracy now, Pacifica, Free Speech Radio News, The SF Bay view, KPOO, The POCC Block Report, and POOR Magazine are desperately concerned and dedicated to the increased fascism that is being perpetrated on all people locally and globally, on migrant scholars at the border, on youth of color in Oakland, on families, children and individuals in Iraq and Afghanistan and Palestine, on poor people in struggle everywhere, This station and all the Pacifica stations across the globe are reporting, writing, recording and broadcasting every day on the wrong-nesses perpetrated by police, armies, militias and beyond -so why is it ok to perpetrate abuse on our own folks, EVER?

To insure that we are not EVER practicing hypocrisy and because of our work and dedication to all fights of injustice and oppression- we as a poor people led/indigenous people led organization who have personally and organizationally been abused by corporate and insitutionally racist and classist systems like the police, practice the same standards of community, care-giving, accountability and self-protection that we promote and expect of all humans, organizations and communities. At POOR Magazine we clearly understand that we all need to self-protect and stay safe in what ever that means for all of us individually - which is why we have developed different forms of redress and community accountability to deal with wrong-nesses perpetrated by any one of us against any other of us. If there is an egrious act committed against one of us we call for a cross-organizational Community Council. WE model it after tribal councils that exist in indigenous communities across the globe, councils of organizational elders that listen/hear from all people concerned and as a community decide what is a proper form of redress for people's actions. WHAT WE DO Not do is call the police - EVER! -the police as all of us are always reporting on - are used as agents of capitalism, fascism and power and operate under a culture of terror- They are taught to use force and weapons. They are instructed to apply harm, the same way as they do in East, West and North Oakland with youth of color, with migrant workers, with houseless folks, with Palestinians on the Israel border.

My challenge to readers, my fellow media producers, artists, reporters, writers, activists and service providers from Amy Goodman to the management of the KPFA station, as well as several non-profit organizations that have also fallen into this same illogical pattern, is to adopt a policy of NO POLICE calls EVER - and with that adopt other forms of inter-organizational redress, and accountability that is NEVER about violence. Yes, that might take more time and more involvement of more people - but that ultimately means that we are not becoming the monsters that we are so focused on reporting on and working against, - that we truly understand that our personal and organizational behavior MUST not emulate the perpetrators who we are fighting , and that if we are going to report on the wrong-nesses of others we must start by fixing the wrong-nesses of ourselves.

For more information on POOR Magazine's indigenous model of Community Accountability, call us at (415) 863-6306 or email us at deeandtiny@poormagazine.org

by Marlon Crump/PNN Revolutionary Legal Scholar

"The goal of this initiative is to breed widespread fear and panic among the public. It relies heavily on law enforcement strategies and incarceration as a means to promote public safety. This Prop 6 is resurrecting failed crime polices from the past in effort to promote the prison industrial complex."

Prop 6 is a proposed ballot initiative called the "Safe Neighborhoods Act" which is a subsequent "gang injunctions" gentrification tool that is aimed towards the youth, in communities of color........... at the hands of wealthy land developers.

The trend of these injunctions have traveled, and have descended upon major U.S. cities, such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, CA, El Paso and Forth Worth, TX, Chicago, IL, and most recently Durham, NC.

This political plague is swarming towards threatening the youth, (from 16-14 yrs old), funding for treatment programs, undocumented immigrant youth, and even the hip-hop generation.

This proposal, according to Community Justice Network for Youth (CJNY) Program Manager, Christina "Krea" Gomez, is alleged to "Protect Victims, Stop Gang and Street Crime" is another "Get Tough on Crime" initiative in California that targets the poor communities of color.

Gomez summarized her extensive research, investigations, and the final analysis of Prop 6 to my family and comrades of POOR during our frequent first Tuesday-of-the-month Community Newsroom, on September 2nd, 2008.

She feels a sense of urgency to oppose

this initiative, before it arrives on the ballot in November. All of us at POOR un-arguably agreed!

One of the main concerns I have with this "initiative" are the youngsters who are viewed as "unfit" for juvenile court from ages 14 to 16--ultimately unleashing more wolves on the youth upon their entry into the savage system, at a younger age............... than almost anywhere in the country.

Prop 6, also known as the "Runner Initiative" is being sponsored by California Republican senator, George C. Runner Jr, and is authored by Mike Reynolds, also the author of Three Strikes. The primary funding machine of Prop 6 is fueled from Henry T. Nicholas "Nick" III, an American communications technology businessman and co-founder of Broadcom Corporation.

The Runner Initiative strengthens gang injunctions. Some of its causes and damaging effects are defining the service process for civil gang injunction.

This would increase the normal standards of these injunctions by applying this to everyone in the gang, and not just individually. Prop 6 would give increased strength towards gang injunctions so that a violation can lead to prison time.

It would target communities by providing funding to local housing authorities, WITH the requirement that people who are housed with public housing subsidies, WITH additional family members also listed on their lease, to submit to annual criminal background checks.
(The intention is to remove housing subsidies of people with recent criminal convictions.)

Even worse, this prop would explicitly allow evictions or closures to be entered and eliminates the 30-day eviction notice process!

The average cost to incarcerate one person in a California prison is $13,000 per year. Increasing incarceration rates have only a negligible effect on reducing violent crime. Proven prevent programs such as the Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care have produced up to a 22% drop in offending, at a cost of less than $7,000 per participant.

The Legislative Analysts Office has estimated that the Runner Initiative will cost taxpayers $1 billion the first year and $500 million every year after that to pay for prisons, probation, and law enforcement.

California currently has a gang database, called CALGANG. It is the largest statewide gang database in the country and lists more than 100,000 names. The criteria behind the data, is so untrustworthy that former California Attorney General Bill Lockyer refused to forward them to the federal authorities.

According to Lockyer, "This database cannot and should not be used, in California or elsewhere, to decide whether or not a person is dangerous or should be detained."

In reference to that statement, the Los Angeles DA's Office found that close to half of Black males between the ages of 21 and 24 had been entered in the county's gang database.............. even though no one could establish that all of these young men were current "gang members." One has to wonder who's name is going to go where and when and for what reasons.

Prop 6 threatens the hip hop generation by continuing to manipulate to the minds of the public that the youth of color are a threat to their safety, or as AmeriKKKa defines it, "National Security."

Speaking of "security" isn't one of Prop 6's sponsors, Henry T. Nicholas "Nick" III, ranked # 195 in 2007 in Forbes Magazine's list of richest Americans, currently under indictment for federal charges for felony drug, conspiracy, and securities fraud?

The Runner Initiative excludes members of the communities most impacted by violence from making decisions about our own safety. This is done, by requiring that the juvenile justice coordinating councils, be responsible, for developing county responses to juvenile crime.

However representatives from community-based drug and alcohol programs, nonprofit organizations serving minors, and the community at large are excluded! This would injure mental health services, in part.

"Prop 6 will take away the community voice and mental health component." argued JewnBug co-founder of POOR's Family Project, and member of Parent Voices. "You can't make a safe neighborhood WITHOUT the community's voice."

POOR Magazine has an Arts, Media, and Literacy program for anyone struggling in poverty looking to publish either a book or a CD. One of the POOR Press Authors, name Angel Garcia had published his first book, titled "Gangs, Drugs, and Denial" just last year. (I personally did the review on his book.)

"I felt the cop's hard boot hit my neck, I heard the wind pass as he lifted back and swung his foot onto my neck and upper back, I tasted the warm blood drip down my mouth..........."

Garcia was a former gang-banger who turned his life around, and published his first book, with the intent that others wouldn't make the same mistakes that he did. If Prop 6 gets passed, what would this mean for youngsters wanting to make a difference in their life?

With community-based organizations and non-profits stripped of their involvement, who are supposed to lead them on a positive path?

This "initiative" also denies the right to a pretrial release to undocumented immigrants who are accused of serious, or gang-related crime from being released on bail or their own recognizance, while awaiting trial.

It would also require local sheriffs to alert the Immigration Central Enforcement (ICE) of the arrest and charges of people who are undocumented.

Prop 6, as it clearly seems, allows the City of San Francisco to establish even more power to criminalize the undocumented youth immigrants to the dooms of deportation........from a not- so "Sanctuary City".

It is not coincidental and/or un-questionably clear that "gang injunctions" and "undocumented immigrant youth" are BOTH placed on the ballot, in the disguise of Prop 6, in the biggest election of the year.

The not so hidden agenda of Prop 6. The "Runner" and "initiative" is to ................initially run off the youth population. Is that really a Safe Neighborhoods Act?

by Marlon Crump/PNN Revolutionary Legal Scholar

"I think that in order to win you have to talk a certain way, without compromising yourself."

These were the charismatic statements from San Francisco Candidate for District 9 Supervisor, Eric Quezada during POOR's monthly Community Newsroom, on August 8th, 2008.

Quezada was collectively interviewed by all of POOR's poverty scholars, writers, and journalists present, regarding his candidacy run for the upcoming November 4th Election for the current seat of incumbent, District 9 Supervisor Tom Ammiano.

POOR's co-founder/my mentor, "Tiny" Lisa Gray-Garcia no-nonsensely navigated the meeting, in her normal fashion by ensuring that all questions asked to Quezada were quick enough for everyone to ask.

"I come from revolutionary politics." said Quezada. "I came into radical politics at an early age. If I win, I want my office to be a tool for the movement. Tell no lies and claim no easy victories."

When he was asked about the affordable housing and displacement(s) situation regarding S.F's poor population, Quezada replied, "We're trying to slow down gentrification and get more affordable housing."

A native San Franciscan, Eric Quezada is a longtime community and housing activist in San Francisco's Mission and Bernal neighborhoods.

Prior to joining Dolores Street Community Services in the fall of 2005, Eric worked for the Mission Housing Development Corporation, co-founder of the Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition (MAC) and the Mission Economic Development Agency.

Quezada also serves on the Board of Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center and PODER (People Organized to Demand Environmental and Economic Rights).

In the 90's during the Dot.Com boom, Eric Quezada took the lead on challenging live/work development in the Mission in the 90’s and has worked since on stopping the gentrification of the neighborhood.

Before and after, he has been at the forefront of the District's most pressing issues, ranging from affordable housing, immigrant rights, family services, economic development, and environmental justice.

"What makes me stand out against the other candidates (S.F Police Commissioner, David Campos, and Mark Sanchez) is that I've been working on these issues for twenty years."

Eric Quezada also expressed his feelings on the treatment of poor people living in affordable housing and S.R.Os (Single Room Occupancy) Hotels, in the face of law enforcement abuse by police officers.

(Which I knew far too well from my own experience in October 7th, 2005..)

"I think that just because you live in affordable housing doesn't mean that your constitutional rights are to be left at the door." he said.

At the People's Rally on July 10th, 2008 at San Francisco City Hall, residents of the Mission, South of Market, Potrero Hill, and Chinatown flooded its steps. Myself, and POOR were there to re-port and su-port the rally, among other neighborhood community activists.

The people in attendance were fed up with the zoning/owning plans that were exchanged, between the S.F Planning Department, and the S.F Planning Commission, and how it would possibly have an "eminent domain" affect on their neighborhoods.

Present in the crowd was Eric Quezada, in support of the rally.

The topic shifted to the destructive issue of the criminalization of S.F's poor, a discussion that proved lengthy. A recent proposal by S.F Mayor Gavin Newsom for a court strictly for S.F's homeless population for "misdemeanor offenses" was approved for funding by the S.F Board of Supervisors, despite objections and protests of many.

As a result of Newsom's "proposal" and its support by numerous S.F. Board of Supervisors, the Community Court Justice Center (defined by POOR as Poverty Court.) was born, on June 22nd, 2008.

In response, Quezada suggests that, "What should really happen is organizing the supervisors."

Quezada discussed the treatment of S.F's youth population, regarding the very racist and classist "gang injunctions" introduced by the San Francisco City Attorney's Office, a little over a year ago.

"It was all about getting money from Homeland Security while trying to keep new residents safe, during targeted gentrified areas in S.F. All it really does is lead to more racial profiling."

Towards the end of the interview, Quezada discussed how he felt about non-profit developers profiteering off of poor people's lives. "Holding non-profit developers accountable actually got me into trouble." Quezada said, in reference to his employment at Mission Housing Development Corporation.

"There are developer fees and these developer fees should be coming back into the community. To say we (S.F.) are going to give 400 acres to Lennar Corp is crazy. The Mayor's Office on Housing is always putting funding on big sites."

by MARLON CRUMP/PNN Revolutionary Legal Scholar

"There is a legislation of an immigrant's Municipal I.D Card. We want to make sure that the police department (San Francisco Police Department) acknowledge immigrant rights."

In the upcoming November 2008 election for District 9's current incumbent, Tom Ammiano's seat, San Francisco Board of Police Commissioner David Campos voiced his concerns regarding a number of issues, including immigrant rights here, in San Francisco, CA to my fellow POOR Magazine comrades.

This was during POOR's Community Newsroom, on November 6th, 2007. Tom Amiano's District consists of the Mission District, Bernal Heights and Portola neighborhoods. David Campos, himself, was an undocumented immigrant when he arrived here in the U.S with his family, from Guatemala at age 14.

Campos also briefly discussed an S.R.O Hotel (Single Room Occupancy) presentation that was going to be on the following day, at the San Francisco Police Commission, at S.F City Hall.

I referenced David Campos' address to my POOR comrades, in regards to this long anticipated presentation of San Francisco Police Department members and their interaction with people (including myself) who live in S.R.O Hotels in the City of San Francisco.

"It's David's commitment as a police commissioner in getting the police department to know the community of Bernal Heights better, is why we were able to get things done regarding community policing." John Perry, a Bernal Heights resident boomed his voice to a large "Campos 2008" capacity crowd at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, in San Francisco's Mission District, on November 29th, 2007.

Among the many in attendance was fellow San Francisco Police Commissioner, Petra DeJesus, Sheriff Michael Hennessey, John Perry, Axis of Love executive director, Shona Gouchenaur, District 9 Supervisor, Tom Ammiano, David Campo's family, and your's truly from POOR Magazine.

When I asked him in a follow up interview what motivated his run for District 9, Campos replied, "I am running for Supervisor because I believe that the most disenfranchised people in District 9 (the poor, immigrants, the homeless, working families) need a voice on the Board of Supervisors."

"I was an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala who came here with nothing. For many years, my family struggled to make ends meet. After a lot of work and the support of my family, friends and my community, I managed to put myself through college and law school.

As an attorney, I also brought the perspective and knowledge of how to get things done, as evidenced by my work on the San Francisco Police Commission, where I have pushed for real and meaningful police reform. I believe that because of my personal and professional experiences, I can be that voice."

David Campos was born in 1970 in Puerto Barrios, Guatemala. He came to the United States with his family when he was only 14 years old. As an undocumented immigrant who spoke only Spanish, David grew up in the barrio of South Central Los Angeles.

He excelled in his classes, earned scholarships to college and law school, and remained true to his roots as a progressive civil rights advocate and Democratic leader. He has earned a BA at Stanford, University in 1993 and a Law Degree from Harvard, in 1996.

David has served as Lead Counsel to the San Francisco Unified School District from 2004-2007. He has worked to desegregate San Francisco schools, investigated corruption, and bring open government to the School District. Campos has also worked in the San Francisco City Attorney's Office, from 1999-2004.

In addition to these accreditations, Campos is Co-chairman of BALIF (Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom) and a Board of Directors member for the San Francisco La Raza Lawyers Association.

When I asked him of his plans for the immigrant families that are currently going through issues of deportation, he replied, "As Supervisor, I would push for the City and County of San Francisco to help those families. Because the federal and state governments are going after these families, the City and County of San
Francisco needs to stand up for them."

"We as a City need to send the clear message that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and compassion whether or not they have papers. The City should develop a support system that gives these families assistance, to give them an opportunity to stay in the country."

Then I questioned his thoughts of the City of San Francisco's attempts towards establishing Municipal Codes for undocumented immigrants, “" assume you're talking about the Municipal ID card." David said. "I totally support it. Most of us take it for granted but having an identification card is critical."

"Without it, it's almost as if you don't exist. Since the federal government and the state government are unwilling to give these individuals a driver's license or some other form of identification, then it is only appropriate for the City to step in and give it to them. My hope is that the identification will allow them to do basic things like opening a checking account, for instance."

I asked him what his thoughts were of a very crucial and critical issue regarding the marijuana debate of cannabis patients here in San Francisco and the protection of their rights, especially in the face of the S.F.P.D, D.E.A, and other law enforcement agencies.

"I believe that we should protect the rights of medical cannabis patients. This is really a human rights issue. It is a very simple. People who need medication should get it. I don't see why the federal government is getting involved in something that is truly a local matter".

The fact is that the people of the State of California and the City and County of San Francisco have spoken, they believe in medical cannabis and the feds should leave patients alone."

I asked Campos how he would address the problems facing youth in San Francisco, and the lack of employment available to them. "I will work tirelessly (pushing for jobs for the youth) to do that. As someone who once was one of those youth who felt like I didn't have many options, I know the importance of giving our youth a hand".

Many of these kids get in trouble because they have no where to go. We as a City need to make an investment in them and develop more programs that allow them to explore their potential, programs that give them options in life."

My next question was something he was all too familiar with for the past two years that I knew him, since he was appointed to being a member of the Board of San Francisco Police Commissioners, in late December of 2005.

"Do you feel that there have been changes in the San Francisco Police Department, regarding many complaints and grievances brought by complainants, since you've been on the Board of Police Commissioners?", I asked.

Campos replied, "I believe that there have been positive changes since I became a Police Commissioner. One good example is that for the first time that I can remember, we are developing a program where tenants are going to the Police Academy to give cadets training on tenants' rights."

The goal that I personally pushed for with Campos, and several other members of the S.F Police Commission for two years, was for the department to re-train their police officers with proper conduct assessments and behavior, particularly people of race, class, and poverty status.

This was in response to the October 7th, 2005 incident when a dozen members of the S.F.P.D illegally stormed my S.R.O Hotel room without a warrant and with their guns drawn, in a "mistaken identity" scenario.

After 25 months, this S.R.O presentation before the S.F Board of Police Commissioners finally became imminent.

"This is happening because commissioners like myself believe that police officers need to hear from the people they serve. It's truly unprecedented that for the first time we are going to have tenants, including SRO tenants, telling police officers about their concerns and problems."

Following the S.R.O Presentation on November 7th, 2007 presented by S.F.P.D Captain Corriea, and Officer Nate Steger of the Mission District Station, Campos, several S.R.O tenants, and I attended the S.F.P.D Citizen's Academy Training for the youth recruits that would be the future of law enforcement, on March 25th, 2008.

"Our hope is that as a result of this training, we will have a police department that is more in tune with what tenants in this City deal with on a daily basis. I also hope that this helps develop mutual trust."

by R.W.S.

I am in my second month of unemployment since my discharge from the non-profit industrial complex. Two months is nothing. I know people who have been out longer--much longer. I have been busy at POOR Magazine doing very worthwhile work. The non-profit that used to employ me occupies an office in the same building as POOR Magazine- - a building whose owners are evicting us. Fortunately for the non-profit, they have a 5-year lease. That's good - for them.

I am not working, but I work. As new co-editor at POOR Magazine, I work the phones contacting our community support members to join us in our Homefulness campaign - a sweat-equity-housing model that gives true housing equity to poor families. It's not based on how much $$ you have but what you can contribute--your art, your skills, your songs, poems, rituals, etc. We are looking to buy a building. Unlike the non-profit industrial organization, POOR Magazine is being evicted.

The non-profits I've become acquainted with seem to operate on the same premise - heavy emphasis on numbers, color coordinated spreadsheets and imposed boundaries. But their structures are corporate with the few at the top reaping benefits at the expense of the many. They seemingly eat themselves from within, becoming mini-fascist fiefdoms with little or no accountability.

As co-editor at POOR, I don't get a paycheck. I don't want one. POOR struggles, thrives, survives because our ancestors - who we honor and respect - will not let it die. POOR's co-founder Lisa Gray-Garcia AKA Tiny, shoulders many of the day to day operating costs, reaching into her own pocket most of the time. Working at POOR to keep it going is more rewarding than a case of povertypimpitis at a non-profit who's bought into the cult of independence and separation. POOR is an organization worthy of my time and efforts because it's real - made up of real folks who are not out for themselves but for the elder, youth, disability and migrant scholars of the community. Our doors are open.

I am collecting unemployment - it's not much but its something - while looking for a regular full-time job with a regular paycheck. But what I am doing right now at POOR Magazine is work - writing articles, making phone calls to our community supporters, facilitating classes, etc.

Yesterday I left POOR to go home. I pushed the button for the elevator. The door opened and inside stood my ex-boss. I stepped inside and we both went down in silence so sharp that it cut through the still air. What was there to say? What if the elevator was to break down? Would she ask me to join her in a rousing version of Kumbaya until help arrived? Luckily the elevator opened. I walked out of the building onto Market Street having put in a day's work and the poverty pimps behind me.

2008 RWS

by RAM/ PNN Race and Poverty scholar

I have lived with formerly incarcerated people who tried to get clean and their lives on track without the prison industrial complex holding them back. I know from personal experience how it separates families and prevents us from raising our own kids who end up in the clutches of child protective services (CPS)--leading to the revolving door of juvenile hall, county jail and ultimately prison.

I grew up with addicted parents. I was the victim of their addiction and domestic violence. After they separated, police raids and sexual pressures put upon my single mother pressured me to leave the house at age 11. I left to better my condition and be an example to my little sister--who was born a week after my 10th birthday. I wanted to go to school in a better district so that my sister would follow my example and strive for a better education instead of handing out in the hood and doing hood things. I had no summer vacations--I changed diapers, fed her, took her to doctors appointments and cared for her everyday after school.

My father passed when I was 16, leading to my mother's decision to get clean. I decided to venture into heavy drug use and alcoholism. While she was getting clean, I was getting dirty, which lasted 8 years. I had my first daughter at 22. When she was 3 I entered my first program (Walden House) of my own recognizance. I was 25.

Recovery is a lifetime goal that I'm still struggling with. Going to meetings, changing my crowd, living in a residential treatment facility where you can't get drug and making the decision to get clean I changed the people, places and things in my life.

My first time at Walden House was a 2-week stay; the second, 3 months; the third, 10 ½ months. I was housed in the same room as my mom who graduated in 1996. The third stay gave me enough time to let it soak in instead of simply biding time. My kids drove me to get clean, but living with my mother--a drug counselor--is my motivation to stay clean.

I am personally in support of proposition 5 because it takes the government out of raising our kids. Since I made the decision to get counseling, my kids have a better chance of going from preschool to school and then to work instead of the preschool to prison pipeline. I believe we need to get rid of the prison industrial complex--it just doesn't work.

A quick glance at California's prison industrial complex reveals the preferred method of dealing with people struggling with drug addiction: incarceration, incarceration, and incarceration. Prop 5 is on the November ballot. It puts forth a lasting solution to replace mindless incarceration of people who need help with drug addiction.

Prop 5 will reduce criminal consequences of non-violent drug offenses by mandating a three-tiered probation with treatment and will provide for case dismissal and/or the sealing of records probation; it will limit court authority to incarcerate offenders who violate probation or parole, shorten parole for most drug offenses, including sales. It will create numerous divisions, boards, commissions and reporting requirements regarding drug treatment and rehabilitation. Prop 5 emphasizes treatment,not punishment as a solution to drug addiction and seeks to expand and increase funding and oversight for individualized treatment and rehabilitation programs for non-violent drug offenders and parolees.

by Angela Pena/Voces de Inmigrantes en Resistencia/Prensa POBRE

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Nota del editor: La criminalización de las comunidades en la pobreza y la comunidad de migrantes de Raza son perpetuadas por un sistema común de opresión que culpa a esos en la clase mas baja de sociedad y levanta una regla de mafia fascista para apoyar la criminalizacion de las comunidades pobres de color . Angela Peña reporta sobre la manera en que considera que la correlación como mujere migrante de Raza.

Soy una mujer inmigrante, reportera de prensa pobre que sufre todos las dificultades de estar indocumentada en este pais. Me siento atrapada en un medio de vida en el cual no hay consideraciones para mi de ninguna forma. Nos tratan como que no fueramos seres humanos. En vez de reconocer lo bueno que hacemos en este pais, solo se enfocan en su odio contra nosotros. Los comentarios de algunas personas que realmente no conocen nada de nosotros es deprimente. Ha estas personas yo les hago una pregunta, “Podrian tener la fuerza de sobrevivir y luchar como lo hacemos nosotros?” Se que serian muy debiles y no lograrian ni la mitad de lo que nosotros hacemos, por que hablar no cuesta, pongance en nuestro lugar para saber de lo que estan hablando. Algo que indigna es darse cuenta que no solo a los inmigrantes se les trata con descriminacion, si no que a la gente pobre de este pais tambien. La descriminan solo por ser seres humanos pobres sin casa. Esto es la Criminalizacion de la pobreza.

La pobreza es como la oscuridad que no deja que las personas vean las causas de la cituacion en que viven.

Con el analisis de presupuesto que estan haciendo los supervisores de la ciudad de San Francisco estan atacando a las personas viviendo con bajos ingresos o sin trabajos, solo por el simple hecho de ser pobres. Quieren tomar un acuerdo de cerrar centros de Salud , viviendas, programas de ayuda economica para personas sin recursos.

El cierre de ambulatorios de salud mental, que es un programa de tratamiento psiquiatrico, que proporciona tratamiento y apoyo intensivo incluyendo medicamentos para personas discapacitadas. Este recorte les va a negar a esas personas discapacitadas la oportunidad de vivir una vida balanciada y saludable.

El departamento de salud publica piensa recortar $2,000.000 dolares sin importarle las consecuencias de su falta de ayuda. En cuanto al departamento de salud publica en el cierre de ayuda a la salud y la higiene en los refugios. Este es un cambio destructivo por que personas vivendo en estos refugios, al no tener los elementos de limpieza veremos mas suciedad y enfermedad en las calles. Asi afecta a los pobres y tambien todas las personas inmigrantes no tenemos ningun servicio. Parece que la ciudad de San Francisco cree que por ser pobre o por ser inmigrante es razon suficiente de no merecer ninguna ayuda. Estamos destinados a morir sin nunguna oportunidad de sobrevivir.

En la salud, piensan cerrar centros de ayuda para las personas enfermas sin casas que al no tener dinero para acudir con un doctor, enfermaran mas o podrian morir por falta de atencion. Esto es prueba que el gobierno de la ciudad de San Francisco es desponible a dejar morir a la gente solo por no tener con que pagar. Por ejemplo, el caso de la senora que espero atencion medica en el hospital pero no le dieron importancia solo por ser una persona pobre sin recursos para pagar . La dejaron morir. Lo pasaron en las noticias pero la gente lo miro como un caso aislado que no les importa.

Editors Note: The criminalization of the communities in poverty and the migrant Raza community are perpetuated by a common oppressive system of scapegoating those at the bottom of the social class system by rowling up a fascist mob rule to back up this demonizing of poor communities of color. Angela Pena reports on how she views the correlation as a migrant Raza women.

I am a migrant mother, POOR Magazine reporter who suffers from all the difficulties imposed on people who work undocumented in this country. I feel trapped in a living environment in which there are no considerations for me in any way. They treat us like we as not human beings. Instead of recognizing the good we do for this country, they only focus on the hate they have against us. The comments of some people who really do not know anything about us are detremental. To these people I ask a question "Could they have the strength to survive and fight as we do?" I know they would be very weak and not achieved half of what we do. Talk is cheap, they should put themselves in our shoes to know what they're talking about. It is sad to realize that not only immigrants are discriminated in this country, but all very poor people are discriminated against . They are discriminated for the sole act of being poor and not having a roof over their heads. This is the Criminalization of Poverty.

Poverty is like the darkness that doesn't let people see the cause of the situation they live in.

Recently there have been massive closures of outpatient mental health centers in cities like San Francisco, due to budget cuts. These psychiatric treatment programs provide intensive support and treatment including medication for people living with disabilities. This cutback will seriously harm folks living with mental disabilities and take away the opportunity for these folks to live a somewhat balanced and healthy life.

As for the health department, this budget proposes cutting off money for health and hygiene in shelters. This is a change for the worse, destroying these people by not having the necessities to survive. This affects the poor as well as all immigrants. Not having services that help those who are the most needy because of their economic or immigration status is something that seems to be justified by the propaganda that makes homeless people out to be street rats, and blames immigrants for the economic crisis. With no one recognizing us as human beings, making us out to be subhuman, we are destined to die without the opportunity to live with dignity. With this budget analysis that supervisors have passed, people without work or income are being attacked, just for being poor.

The health department wants to cut $2000,000 dollars regardless of the consequences of their lack of aid. In the Housing department, they want to remove the aid payment to households with children and that when they lost where they live, as these children were living on the street, and I'm not even talking about immigrants, these are U.S. citizens most of whom are veterans. Department of Public Health will take a cut $70,000 in singing to health and hygiene in shelters that actually refers to products such as blankets, soap for the bathroom tooth paste for all shelters were without these basic components to survive.

Because of these cuts all the people who live in this city feel the change because we will see entire families in extreme poverty, but in reality those who worry us most are the kids that we will see in poverty and desperation. This will also result in more people asking for money in many places.

by Tony Robles/PNN

People get ready

There's a train-a-comin

You dont need no baggage

You just get on board

--Curtis Mayfield

People Get Ready by Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions--to me it's the greatest song ever written. Rolling Stone Magazine named it the 24th greatest song of all time (It named Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone"#1). Forget Rolling Stone. People Get Ready--when I hear it I reflect, sometimes cry. More often, I feel inspired in a world full of war and bad news. In the late 80's I was a student at San Francisco State University majoring in broadcasting. I wanted to be a radio DJ. I succeeded--sort of. I worked in small towns spinning dusty records. One such station was in a wheat field in Stockton where cows sauntered by the window, shooting occasional glances and dropping mounds of steaming cowshit everywhere--including the parking lot. When I got to my car, I'd dodged so much cowshit that I thought I was in a field of landmines. As they say in radio, it was paying your dues.

At SF State I saw a flyer announcing that Curtis Mayfield would be performing in a small theater in the student union. I immediately bought a ticket. The girl I was dating was younger than I was--Curtis who, she asked.

I remember when I was a kid. My uncles and father used to hang out listening to records. My father had about a thousand albums and loved to sing. He and my uncles would sing with the records, hitting the highs, lows and in-betweens. They had a singing group called "The Brothers of Minority". My uncles were like the United Nations--one looked black, the other Chinese, the other, Chicano--they were a cross section of the people of color in San Francisco gentrified out of the Fillmore. My family was gentrified. They never lost their music.

I got to the small theater that was half-filled. I thought, how could this so? Curtis Mayfield is a legend, a man whose music inspired young people, the civil rights and anti-war movements. Anything less than standing room only seemed insulting. I sat down and he came out. He greeted the audience. He picked up his guitar and started playing,accompanied by a pianist. It was part music, part Q & A. One audience member asked, "Curtis, where have you been?" Curtis just shook his head and said that just because you're not recording, doesn't mean that life doesn't go on--that he'd been busy with other things, like everybody else.

He played his songs. It was the soundtrack of my Uncles lives. He played Gypsy Woman, the song about a lovely woman in motion, with hair as "dark as night", and eyes like a "cat in the dark". He stopped occasionally to speak to the audience. I wanted to ask him something but my mind went blank. I requested a song. "Can you play, I'm so proud?" I asked. He played it and I sat thinking of all the girls I liked that I never had the courage to talk to.

Prettier than all the world

And I'm so proud

I'm so proud, I'm so proud of you

Curtis Mayfield recorded the song, "People Get Ready" in 1965. Hearing it reminds me of my Uncle Anthony. Uncle Anthony is a street minister. You might have seen him on Market Street donning a black hat and bright red sweatshirt. He gives out tracts with a message--a message that breathes the lyrics of Curtis Mayfield.

There ain't no room for the hopeless sinner

Who would hurt all mankind just to save his own

Have pity on those whose chances grow thinner

For there's no hiding place against the kingdom's throne

My street minister uncle reaches out to the players, the pimps and those in the life. I see him at times--times that I need him most. He appears--telling me the little things I worry about ain't nothing, that I have to get ready for the lord. He says that God doesn't differentiate between a person's color. "Let me ask you this", he says, "When you die and meet God, do you think he's gonna ask you what color you was down there? He always makes me laugh but his insights make me think. "I'm working for the lord now
, he says. "It may not pay much but the retirement plan is out of this world".

I sometimes think of the words of a Filipino minister that I heard one Sunday morning. "God is an equal opportunity lover", he said.

A little more than a year after that intimate performance by Curtis Mayfield I learned that he had been involved in a tragic accident. While on stage in New York, the wind blew down a utility pole, which struck Curtis on stage. He became paralyzed as a result. Regardless, he went on performing--releasing the critically acclaimed, "New World Order" album in 1999.

I walk through the gentrified streets and I'm sad. I see my city dying but if you look close enough, you can see life--a spark. The writer Charles Bukowski once wrote, "Keep a little bit for yourself, a spark. One spark can set a whole forest ablaze".

People get ready is a universal message that honors the creator. It honors the blood and bones creation in us held together in poetry and ancestral voices reaching far into the soul waiting to breathe and praise the goodness in us as the sun beats its pulse upon our chests.

The world has gone crazy and in this inching towards insanity there is pause. It is given in the pages of a book, the sound of a trumpet in the Bart Station, the tap dancer tapping stories on pavement and in the words of songs.

People get ready is a song that gives you hope. In it you'll hear the voices of your grandmothers and grandfathers and their grandfathers and grandmothers. It will take you back to interdependence--mother, father and daughter and son and neighbor and creator. The way it was meant.

All you need

Is faith to hear

The diesels hummin

Don't

Need no ticket

You just thank

The lord