Story Archives 2011

p Revolutionary Youth Media Education (span data-scayt_word="RYME" data-scaytid="1"RYME/span) Youth span data-scayt_word="Skolaz" data-scaytid="2"Skolaz/span report on action by span data-scayt_word="PODER" data-scaytid="4"PODER/span Youth span data-scayt_word="Skolaz" data-scaytid="3"Skolaz/span for Equal Access to Health in the City-/p

h5 span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Times;"Brother can you spare me a crumb? /span/h5 h5 span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Times;"iThe Following reports on budget genocide were written by the Revolutionary Youth Media Education (span data-scayt_word="RYME" data-scaytid="2"RYME/span) span data-scayt_word="Skolaz" data-scaytid="3"Skolaz/span at POOR Magazine who attended the Bake Sale for Critical Services at City Hall in San Francisco and interviewed David Campos, SF Board Supervisor./i/span/h5 p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Times;"nbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Times;"bFrom span data-scayt_word="Kamaria" data-scaytid="4"Kamaria/span, 14/b/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; I am span data-scayt_word="kamaria" data-scaytid="5"kamaria/span span data-scayt_word="shanndoah" data-scaytid="6"shanndoah/span and I am 14 years old./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"Do you think that the budget cuts are okay? Before you answer that question Irsquo;d like to explain what budget cuts REALLY are. Budget cuts effect the whole economy in many ways. 1000rsquo;s of people are being laid of from their jobs because of budget cuts. More than 8 million dollars have been cut during budget cuts. On Thursday June 23suprd/sup 2011, there was a bake sale titled ldquo; Brother, Can You Spare Me A Crumb? ldquo; on the city hall steps/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; On that day I got the chance to ask David Campos , a progressing supervisor who represents district 9 on the board of supervisors , what he felt about budget cuts . He feels that ldquo; budget cuts are effecting the whole economy because span data-scayt_word="stoping" data-scaytid="7"stoping/span people from doing certain things that they like. ldquo; he said that dependingnbsp; on what is cut, it could really hurt the economy and our city.nbsp; /span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Examples of the cuts are that there was a 1,993,969 dollar budget cut from the human service agency , a 3,643,718 dollar reduction from the heath department , 579,264 dollars was cut from the department of aging and adult services, and 2,308,414 was reduced from the department of children family and youth. Now why would the government want to take money from the health department? There are millions of people who need health services every single day. If budget cuts keep being made to areas like health , children and family , schools , and elders then are whole economy will continue to decline slowly. /span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"nbsp;nbsp; In conclusion, now what do you think about budget cuts? span data-scayt_word="Im" data-scaytid="8"Im/span pretty sure you changed span data-scayt_word="yout" data-scaytid="9"yout/span mind now that you know what budget cuts REALLY are. I donrsquo;t think that budget cuts are okay and they never will be. /span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"nbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Times;"bFrom span data-scayt_word="Tatyana" data-scaytid="10"Tatyana/span, 15/b/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"These budget cuts are terrorizing people in many ways. People who are tired of being in the governments choke-hold. /span/p p span style="font-family: Times;"On 6/21/11 me and my fellow poverty scholars had the chance to interview big men in suits, one was named David Campos, he is a progressive supervisor,who kept things going for the poor people in poverty, but he couldnrsquo;t say so much for his fellow supervisor friends. He helps the people of district nine well./span/p p span style="font-family: Times;"The way I feel about budget cuts is in schools is less opportunities. I am span data-scayt_word="Tatyana" data-scaytid="11"Tatyana/span, span data-scayt_word="im" data-scaytid="12"im/span 15 years old and span data-scayt_word="im" data-scaytid="13"im/span in high school. I have not yet seen the massive budget cuts at my school yet because there wasnrsquo;t much to begin with. In schools, budget cuts are hard on students and parents. To have budget cuts means no bus rides, no free lunches, no art, cooking or band class, and sometimes its down to pink slips to teachers./span/p p span style="font-family: Times;"The budget cuts at the brother can you spare a crumb protest were abouthellip;./spanbr / span style="font-family: Times;"nbsp;Senior services, span data-scayt_word="houseless" data-scaytid="14"houseless/span services, health services, children services./span/p p span style="font-family: Times;"In senior services they are cutting $122,419 cut from senior centers and activity for adults with disabilities. In housing they are eliminating funding for eviction prevention and other legal services for over 1,000 public housing span data-scayt_word="tenants.In" data-scaytid="1"tenants.In/span health services they are proposing 16% reduction from the homeless. In children health services both childcare and after-school centers including beacon centers reduced. And the violence prevention efforts reduced to 54 programs serving at-risk youth by over $1,000,000./span/p p span style="font-family: Times;"I learned that if we donrsquo;t start taking these budget cuts seriously and start standing together to the board of supervisors and the mayor, then we will lose the true value of school, learning, and lose our future to make good memories./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"nbsp;/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Times;"bFrom span data-scayt_word="Rashida" data-scaytid="15"Rashida/span, 12,/b/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"I am span data-scayt_word="Rashida" data-scaytid="16"Rashida/span span data-scayt_word="Talibah" data-scaytid="17"Talibah/span Banks Reed and I go to public school and I am 12 years old./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; How Budget cuts effect me in a way because teachers at my school are getting laid off and more children are trying to get in my school and they cannot because the teachers are getting laid off, and now there are less teachers./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"Me and my posse went to a bake sale at city hall in San Francisco on June 21supspan data-scayt_word="st" data-scaytid="18"st/span/supnbsp; and there was people that were protesting about the budget cuts./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"The cuts include/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"$900,000 in cuts to supportive housing takes money out of SSI retro checks for span data-scayt_word="CAAP" data-scaytid="19"CAAP/span recipients to cover shelternbsp; costs/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"Elimination of two job training programs for homeless and formerly homeless people /span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"A variety of cuts to transitional housing for youth and families /span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"As you can see budget cuts can make you lose your job and may lose your housing and many other things. So donrsquo;t Mess with budget cuts/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Times;"!/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Times;"bFrom span data-scayt_word="Ya’mil" data-scaytid="20"Yarsquo;mil/span, 12/b/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"Budget cuts are just excuses for not getting people off the streets.nbsp; The government wastes the money killing people in other countries. the government lays people off butnbsp; they donrsquo;t put the money to a good cause like getting people off streets or giving people money who needs it for homes./span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; I am span data-scayt_word="Yamil" data-scaytid="21"Yamil/span Chambers and I am 12 years old. I am a student in middle school. budget cuts affect me by cutting classes in school. When budget cuts interact with schools it also takes books from classrooms/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; The event was a bake sale at city hall. the bakenbsp; sale was donenbsp; to prevent cuts to critical services. Some examples were a cut to the Department of aging and adult services of this money $579,264 reduction /span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="" span style="font-family: Times;"As you can see that budget cuts or the government shows no mercy for anyone not even your children the people the government cares for nobody but them selves. This should provoke people to take budget cuts more seriously .now heed my warning be cautious how you deal with budget cuts./span/p

p The Following span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="RYME" data-scaytid="3"RYME/span Youth span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Skolar" data-scaytid="5"Skolar/span Reports were written by the Youth span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Skolaz" data-scaytid="7"Skolaz/span for the Poison on Our Plate Project after their extensive research, strongWe-Search /strong(as we call it at POOR Magazine) and interviews with Eric Mar who proposed a legislation to prevent San Francisco restaurants from including a toy in their meals./p p nbsp;/p p strongOn span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Air--Kamaria" data-scaytid="9"Air--Kamaria/span span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Shanndoah" data-scaytid="11"Shanndoah/span, 14/strong: I am span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Kamaria" data-scaytid="15"Kamaria/span span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Shanndoah" data-scaytid="13"Shanndoah/span and I am 14 years old. ldquo;Poison on our platerdquo; taught me about all the pollution and radiation in the San Francisco air. I learned that some of the chemicals in our air are Sulfur Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide, Nitrogen Oxides, and Hydrocarbons. I also found out that the radiation in our air has increased in the past 20 years. Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particle matter or biological materials that cause harm to humans or other living organisms. Air pollution can also damage the natural environment, and atmosphere./p p ldquo;Poison on our platerdquo; also taught me about Eric Mar. Eric Mar was elected in November 2008 to represent District 1,nbsp;San Francisco#39;snbsp;Richmond District. For over two decades Eric has been a dedicated and responsive advocate for working families, youth and seniors, small businesses and all the diverse residents of the Richmond District and San Francisco. Eric Mar is a legislator. On Tuesday, July 19, 2011, I got the opportunity to ask Eric Mar questions about his legislation. Eric says that if the fast food industry would change their menus to have healthier options then he wouldnrsquo;t have made an effort to have the toys removed. Eric says he feels that that fast food places use toys to lure children into eating fast food and that toys are only the problem when they are used to make children eat unhealthy foods./p p In conclusion I would like to say that poison on our plate taught me important facts about our food, air and water, I also got the opportunity to meet Eric Mar and ask him questions. It is important for the youth to knownbsp;the facts about the food they are eating. ldquo;Poison on our platerdquo; taught me a lot about different toxins that are in our food. I feel that more schools and programs should teach us about the food we consume every day./p p strongOn Air-- span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Ya’mil" data-scaytid="17"Yarsquo;mil/span Chambers,12/strong: nbsp;In the lsquo;poison on our platersquo; project we learned about the sources of air pollution. Some of these are tobacco, cars, and acid rain. Combustion of coal is also a source of air pollution. Coal combustion is the burning of coal in a power plant for electricity. Coal is also used in powering trains. I am span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Yamil" data-scaytid="19"Yamil/span Chambers and as a 12 year old, I am concerned about coal combustion, which causes air pollution. Every day an average adult consumes a total of 3,000 gallons of polluted air. This represents thatnbsp;simple coal combustion causes health problems. This means that we donrsquo;t care about what goes into our air. This also means that if we care about our lives, if we donrsquo;t pull it together,nbsp;manynbsp;willnbsp;succumb to health problems because ofnbsp;the pollution in our air./p p On July 19th I went to city hall to meet with Eric Mar. Eric Mar isnbsp;a San Francisco city supervisor and I asked him ldquo;Do you think fast food places just put the toys in to provoke children to get the meals?rdquo; And he replied that McDonald#39;s and Burger King just use the toys to lure children into pestering their parents to get the unhealthy foods for them for the toy. I learned that food can taste good but they can be a threat to your bodyrsquo;s digestive system/p p strongOn span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Food--Tatyana" data-scaytid="21"Food--Tatyana/span East, 15/strong: My name is span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Tatyana" data-scaytid="23"Tatyana/span East and I am 15 years old. I am currently associating with POORnbsp;News network. In the ldquo;poison on our platerdquo; project, we learned how many teaspoons of sugar are in a can of Coca cola. My fellow poverty scholars and I also went on a field trip to Burger King and McDonalds. We interviewed children, a boy and a girl, who were hooked on the fast food. We asked if they knew about how bad McDonalds food was, and they said, ldquo;hey, Inbsp;know how bad it is.nbsp; But they liked it so much that they eat there pretty often. We also learned that at Burger King, when they donrsquo;t use the burger patties that they make that day, are put in the freezer. We learned that the beef burger patties are made of different parts of the cow, and that they mush all that junk together to make their patties./p p Me and my colleagues from POOR magazine were doing research on Eric Mar who is a supervisor of the Richmond district and his legislation on banning kids meal toys out of restaurants in San Francisco. We asked him questions on the situation and he responded, rdquo;the fast food restaurants use the toys to taunt the children to buy the fast foodrdquo; He also said that his daughter was a big part of his motivation and drive to end the issue of childrenrsquo;s obesity. And he talked about the food dessert. What I learned from Eric mar was that his whole reason for legislation was to keep children healthy and away from obesity. And making sure that each fast food restaurant had a health chart showing how many calories were in the food./p p nbsp;/p p strongON FOOD--Rashida Talibah Banks Reed,12/strong:nbsp;At Poor magazine, we did a project called ldquo;poison on the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="plate.”" data-scaytid="1"plate.rdquo;/span We learned about how many calories are in a whopper and how much sugar is in a Coca-Cola can. It#39;s so much I can hardly say. Itrsquo;s too much for humans to consume. Then we went to city hall and we interviewed Eric Mar. He was amazing. The Poverty and youth scholars and I asked a whole bunch of good questions. I asked ldquo;what was your motivation to take the toys out the happy meals?rdquo; 1: I got some quotes from him too. he said they called it the toy ban. 2: He wanted to remove the toys from unhealthy meals to fight obesity. 3: He said we should go to the produce market. I learned a lot of stuff about food and other things I told you every thing in ma intro. Every thing was important. I really enjoyed it. As you can see everything we do here is FUN!/p p nbsp;/p p strongON FOOD--Rukiyah Mayfield, 12/strong: My name is RUKIYAH MAYFIELD and I am 12 years old. I am from POOR News Network. In the ldquo;poison on our platerdquo; project I learned that a woman should only have 5 teaspoons (20 grams) of sugar per day, and a man should only have 9 teaspoons (36 grams). lastly, little children should have no more than 3 teaspoons (12 grams) a day. I also learned that we as society have too much sugar. When I went to City Hall I met Eric Mar, and we talked about the legislation that Eric Mar proposed. His legislation was not allowing restaurants to give a toy with their food. Also we all asked Eric Mar questions, but I asked what will he do if people start to protest for the McDonalds toy ban and he said he will encourage it because thatrsquo;s how you make change. After this project, I realized that as a young woman of color my idea is that I should eat healthy every Monday and Tuesday to help me stay strong./p

p From several hundred pesticides and toxic levels of radiation in our air and water, to poisons and frog genes in our milk and tomatoes, the youth and adult span data-scayt_word="skolaz" data-scaytid="1"skolaz/span in the Revolutionary Youth Media Education (span data-scayt_word="RYME" data-scaytid="3"RYME/span) span data-scayt_word="PeopleSkool" data-scaytid="6"PeopleSkool/span Summer Session of 2011 uncovered frightening facts about the food we eat, the air we breathe and the water we drink every day in the US./p p As a poverty span data-scayt_word="skolar" data-scaytid="8"skolar/span and mama, I facilitated the launch of this multi-generational, project based learning curriculum after I noticed that Burger King and other fast food chains now accept span data-scayt_word="EBT" data-scaytid="9"EBT/span Cards (Food stamp cards) tempting more poor children and over-worked families like me to eat fast food every day, while diabetes and heart disease rates soar in poor communities of color, illnesses that directly correlate with eating too much sugar, fat and salt found in mass amounts in fast food and bulk discount markets./p p Tony Robles, POOR Magazinersquo;s co-editor also added to the curriculum with some of the content from Eric Schlosserrsquo;s excellent book ldquo;Fast Food Nation, The Dark side of the All-American mealrdquo;, a book that exposes the devastatingnbsp;costs to society levied by the fast food industrymdash;costs that include damage to peoplersquo;s health, the environment and the unprecedented push at marketing to childrenmdash;the blueprint that was creatednbsp;by Walt Disney and McDonaldrsquo;s long time CEO Ray span data-scayt_word="Croc" data-scaytid="10"Croc/span./p p Fast Food Nation and the findings of the youth and adult span data-scayt_word="skolaz" data-scaytid="2"skolaz/span led us to the door of the humble, yet revolutionary Eric Mar, a San Francisco Board supervisor and father who launched a legislation to halt toy giveaways to children by fast food restaurants. Poison on Our plate enabled the span data-scayt_word="RYME" data-scaytid="4"RYME/span youth leaders and poor span data-scayt_word="mamaz" data-scaytid="11"mamaz/span and span data-scayt_word="daddys" data-scaytid="12"daddys/span and elders @ span data-scayt_word="PeopleSkool" data-scaytid="7"PeopleSkool/span to learn the implications on our body from fast food as well as dangerous levels of toxins in our air and water, including the rise in radiation, especially after the tragedy of Fukushima Nuclear Disaster which had a direct impact on the levels of radiation in our air and water in California, a fact that never gets reported by corporate media./p p Finally, there is no simple answer to this complex issue of consuming unhealthy food, water and air, and its not as simple as becoming a vegetarian or shopping at ldquo;Whole Paycheckrdquo; and other over-priced so-called ldquo;healthy storesrdquo; ; but it launched a revolutionary intergenerational conversation that is extremely important for communities of color and young folks to be having in the 21st century. For POOR Magazine, this project inspired us even more to work on localizing our food production and create long-term sustainable food security solutions like the launching of a community garden and a farmers market at the future site of a href="http://www.poormagazine.org/homefulness"span data-scayt_word="HOMEFULNESS" data-scaytid="13"HOMEFULNESS/span/a in East Oakland/p p Click on this a href="http://www.poormagazine.org/node/3994"link to read the Youth span data-scayt_word="Skolaz" data-scaytid="14"Skolaz/span span data-scayt_word="RYME" data-scaytid="5"RYME/span Reports and Watch the span data-scayt_word="PNN-TV" data-scaytid="15"PNN-TV/span coverage/a/p

p Prisoners in a third of California prisons have been on a hunger strike to protest solitary confinement rules and other inhumane treatment.nbsp; The protest began on July 1 when prisoners in the Pelican Bay Secured Housing Unit (span data-scayt_word="SHU" data-scaytid="4"SHU/span) began refusing meals./p p The protesting prisoners grew in number to include other institutions, apparently becoming most active in Pelican Bay, Corcoran State Prison, and the California Correctional Institute at Tehachapi./p p There are upwards of 6,000 people on strike (numbers vary according to different media reports). At least 2,000 are on medical watch. Unfortunately, the statersquo;s Department of Corrections has denied journalists access to the striking prisoners, undermining the free flow of information to really know whatrsquo;s going on./p p One official statement claimed gang leaders were behind the strikemdash;span data-scayt_word="SHUs" data-scaytid="5"SHUs/span were created to undermine and stop prison gang violence on various yards and span data-scayt_word="cellblocks" data-scaytid="7"cellblocks/span by targeting so-called ldquo;shot span data-scayt_word="callers.”" data-scaytid="1"callers.rdquo;/span But this statement doesnrsquo;t address the confinement in the various span data-scayt_word="SHUs" data-scaytid="6"SHUs/span that isolate prisoners behind tiny cells for around 23 hours a day, with only one hour a day allowed in a small area with high concrete walls./p p This doesnrsquo;t explain the growing number of prisoners in general population also taking part./p p California has increased its prison population from 15,000 in fifteen prisons during the early span data-scayt_word="1970s" data-scaytid="9"1970s/span to around 160,000 in thirty-three prisons today (there are also several thousand prisoners shipped outside the state to private institutions). While state officials largely separated prisoners by race and so-called prison gangs, in three decades street gang violence, drug sales, and crime has escalated throughout the state, but also across the country./p p The number one gang problem in the United States is the growing number of California-based gangs, particularly from Los Angeles, that have now taken hold in almost every state in the union. In three decades gang associations like span data-scayt_word="Crips" data-scaytid="10"Crips/span and Bloods, span data-scayt_word="Surenos" data-scaytid="11"Surenos/span and span data-scayt_word="Nortenos" data-scaytid="12"Nortenos/span, 18th Street and Mara span data-scayt_word="Salvatrucha" data-scaytid="13"Salvatrucha/span as well as Hellrsquo;s Angels and other Bikers, Skinheads and Aryans, among others, have spread exponentially./p p In twenty years this has become global when California gangs, largely through massive deportations, became scattered throughout Mexico, Central America, and places like Cambodia and Armenia./p p In effect, this policy of isolation, inhumanity, and more span data-scayt_word="cellblocks" data-scaytid="8"cellblocks/span hasnrsquo;t reduced crime or gang violencemdash;it has only made things worse and penetrated international borders./p p I support the main demands of the striking prisoners and ask that others do so as well. Most prisoners are incarcerated from drug-related charges in a war on drugs that has not stopped drugs yet continues to siphon billions of our tax dollars./p p There is also a 70 percent return rate for most parolees, who often lack job and life skills to pull themselves out of the crime-and-drug matrix that now covers most poor areas./p p The fact is the present overcrowded and inhumane treatment of California prisonersmdash;including with three-strikes-and-yoursquo;re-out sentencing, trying juveniles as adults, and so-called gang enhancementsmdash;has only made our lives more dangerous, not less./p p The California prison system is in need of fundamental and humane transformation. The striking prisonersrsquo; nonviolent protest demonstrates this is a serious and long-range thinking action. We need to heed the voices against any injustices, regardless of where they come from. These prisoners are often our fathers, sons, brothers, sisters, mothers, daughters, and neighbors./p p nbsp;/p p emLuis J. Rodriguez, the author of Always Running: La Vida span data-scayt_word="Loca" data-scaytid="14"Loca/span, Gang Days in span data-scayt_word="L.A" data-scaytid="2"L.A/span. and several other books in short fiction, children#39;s literature, nonfiction, and poetry. Onnbsp;his web log henbsp;posts all the latest news concerningnbsp;his work as a writer, along with news and opinions on the many political, social, spiritual and cultural activities that henbsp;finds interesting.nbsp; Check out his blog at a href="http://luisjrodriguez.com/blog/"http://span data-scayt_word="luisjrodriguez.com" data-scaytid="3"luisjrodriguez.com/span/blog//a/em/p

p span class="style128"span class="style56"span class="style111"a name="28"/astrongfont color="#990000" size="4"July 28 (Thursday) /font/strong/span/span/spanspan class="style128"font size="3"5:00 PM (Donation)/font/span strongspan class="style249"emfont size="3"span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Manilatown" data-scaytid="1"Manilatown/span Center/font/em/span/strong - span class="style21"font size="3"868 span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Kearny" data-scaytid="3"Kearny/span St., SF nbsp; /font/spanbr / strongfont size="4"span class="style65"Unsung Heroes of U. S. History /span/font/strongbr / span class="style56"font size="3"font color="#333333"strong6:00-7:00 PM/strong - /font/fontfont size="3"font color="#333333"strongemBuffalo Soldiers in the Philippine War - A Conflict of Conscience for African Americans/em/strongbr / Descendants of Buffalo Soldiers who married Filipino women and moved back to the Bay Area will be invited to share their family stories.br / strong7:00-8:00 PM/strong ndash; Film Preview of /font/fontfont size="3"font color="#333333"strongemldquo;The Delano span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Manongs" data-scaytid="7"Manongs/span: Forgotten Heroes of the span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="UFW”" data-scaytid="13"UFWrdquo;/span/em/strongbr / The Delano span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Manongs" data-scaytid="9"Manongs/span tells the unknown history of a group of Filipino span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="farmworkers" data-scaytid="15"farmworkers/span in Delano, California who toiled under the yoke of racism for decades, then rose up in their twilight years to fight for fair wages and ethical work conditions.br / The span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Manongs" data-scaytid="11"Manongs/span (a span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Manong" data-scaytid="17"Manong/span is a Filipino term of respect for an older brother) instigated one of the American labor movementrsquo;s finest hours ndash; the Great Grape Strike of 1965 that brought about a successful joining of the Filipino and Chicano (Mexican-American) labor groups and the creation of the United Farm Workers Union (span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="UFW" data-scaytid="19"UFW/span). This program will show the 10 min. trailer. There will also be a discussion with the filmrsquo;s director Marissa Aroy./font/font/spanbr / nbsp;/p p span class="style56"font size="3"font color="#333333"strong8:00-9:00 PM/strong ndash; /font/fontfont size="3"font color="#333333"strongemTribute to Al Robles ldquo;Uncle Alrdquo;/em/strongbr / Alfred A. Robles (February 16, 1930 - May 2, 2009) dedicated his life to working for social justice.nbsp; A community character, he was instrumental in the political fight against the city to stop the demolition of the International Hotel on span class="scayt-misspell" data-scayt_word="Kearny" data-scaytid="5"Kearny/span Street./font/font/span/p

p bPt. 1- The Blessing Ceremony/biframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LrPztDzJcqc" width="480"/iframe/p p strongPt 2; The Poets read for Uncle Al Robles/strong/p pobject height="349" width="425"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gXWMnQG5iTk?version=3hl=en_USrel=0" /param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gXWMnQG5iTk?version=3hl=en_USrel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425"/embed/object/p

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p style="margin-top: 15px;" After 98 days and nights of a continuous prayer vigil, thebr / Committee to Protect Glen Cove is pleased to announce a victory in the struggle to protect the sacred grounds of span data-scayt_word="Sogorea" data-scaytid="5"Sogorea/span span data-scayt_word="Te" data-scaytid="12"Te/span/Glen Cove./p p Yesterday, the span data-scayt_word="Yocha" data-scaytid="19"Yocha/span span data-scayt_word="Dehe" data-scaytid="27"Dehe/span and Cortina tribes established a a href="http://protectglencove.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/cultural_easement-and-settlement-agreement.pdf"cultural easement and settlement agreement/a with the City of Vallejo and the Greater Vallejo Recreation District (span data-scayt_word="GVRD" data-scaytid="35"GVRD/span). The agreement sets a legal precedent for granting Native peoples jurisdiction over their sacred sites and ancestral lands. The cultural easement forever guarantees that the span data-scayt_word="Yocha" data-scaytid="20"Yocha/span span data-scayt_word="Dehe" data-scaytid="28"Dehe/span and Cortina tribes will have legal oversight in all activities taking place on the sacred burial grounds of span data-scayt_word="Sogorea" data-scaytid="6"Sogorea/span span data-scayt_word="Te" data-scaytid="13"Te/span/Glen Cove. It also represents a significant step forward in enacting tribal sovereignty, as the first such easement under CA Senate Bill 18 to be negotiated at the city and recreational district levels./p p The agreementrsquo;s terms include elimination of the formerly planned restroom facility and relocation of a downsized 2-space parking lot to an area thoroughly tested to confirm that it contains no human remains or cultural remnants./p p While the specifics of the deal leave some ambiguity about how span data-scayt_word="GVRD’s" data-scaytid="37"GVRDrsquo;s/span park development project can and cannot proceed, the Committee is hopeful that span data-scayt_word="Yocha" data-scaytid="21"Yocha/span span data-scayt_word="Dehe" data-scaytid="29"Dehe/span and Cortina will use their newfound influence to make sure that the resting place of the ancestors is not further disturbed or desecrated./p p ldquo;The cultural easement is an important victory, however we are concerned about the lack of specific language that would prevent grading on the western portion of the site,rdquo; states span data-scayt_word="Corrina" data-scaytid="38"Corrina/span Gould (span data-scayt_word="Chochenyo" data-scaytid="39"Chochenyo/span/span data-scayt_word="Karkin" data-scaytid="40"Karkin/span span data-scayt_word="Ohlone" data-scaytid="41"Ohlone/span.) ldquo;We will be communicating this to the tribes and we have faith that they will take all necessary measures to ensure that ancestral remains and cremations are left span data-scayt_word="undisturbed.”" data-scaytid="1"undisturbed.rdquo;/span/p p Gould continued, ldquo;We appreciate and are humbled by the vast support that we have received in protecting our ancestors. It is our responsibility to continue to do the work to make certain that all of our sacred places are span data-scayt_word="protected.”" data-scaytid="2"protected.rdquo;/span/p p The historical and cultural value of the 3,500-year old site has never been disputed and it continues to be spiritually important to California tribes.nbsp;On April 14th, local Native Americans and supporters began a 24-hour prayer vigil at span data-scayt_word="Sogorea" data-scaytid="7"Sogorea/span span data-scayt_word="Te" data-scaytid="14"Te/span to prevent the Greater Vallejo Recreation District from bulldozing/grading a large portion of the sacred site and constructing bathrooms and a parking lot./p p nbsp;/p h1 class="entry-title" Day 104: Closing ceremony set for Saturday, span data-scayt_word="Yocha" data-scaytid="22"Yocha/span span data-scayt_word="Dehe" data-scaytid="30"Dehe/span representative visits/h1 div class="entry-meta" nbsp;/div p a href="http://protectglencove.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/P1060497-sm1.jpg"img alt="" class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-3912" height="150" src="http://protectglencove.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/P1060497-sm1-150x150.jpg" title="P1060497-sm" width="150" //a/p p a href="http://protectglencove.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/IMG_4785-sm-crop.jpg"img alt="" class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-3908" height="150" src="http://protectglencove.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/IMG_4785-sm-crop-150x150.jpg" title="IMG_4785-sm-crop" width="150" //a/p p bAnnouncement:/b A final closing ceremony for the prayer vigil encampment at span data-scayt_word="Sogorea" data-scaytid="8"Sogorea/span span data-scayt_word="Te" data-scaytid="15"Te/span will be held on Saturday, July 30th, starting at noon. During the ceremony, long-term participants and warriors will be honored and the sacred fire that has been continuously tended for over 100 days and nights will be allowed to burn out./p p Bring chairs to sit in and food to share. Wersquo;ll be asking volunteers to take trash out with them as they leave. Also, on Sunday the 31st, we will work together to pack everything up and to thoroughly clean and restore the grounds. Extra hands will be very much appreciated./p p bOn Monday the 25th,/b a representative of span data-scayt_word="Yocha" data-scaytid="23"Yocha/span span data-scayt_word="Dehe" data-scaytid="31"Dehe/span visited span data-scayt_word="Sogorea" data-scaytid="9"Sogorea/span span data-scayt_word="Te" data-scaytid="16"Te/span and walked the grounds with Protect Glen Cove Committee members, who pointed out all the specific areas of cultural concern. He brought with him a a href="http://protectglencove.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/yochadehe-letters-7_25.pdf"letter/a from Marshall McKay, the Chairman of span data-scayt_word="Yocha" data-scaytid="24"Yocha/span span data-scayt_word="Dehe" data-scaytid="32"Dehe/span. A personal note from McKay accompanying the letter stated that ldquo;It is with heartfelt appreciation for your dedication to the preservation of the sacred burials and sites at Glen Cove that I send this messagehellip;Please know that while I cannot attend the closing ceremony, I will be with you in span data-scayt_word="spirit.”" data-scaytid="3"spirit.rdquo;/span/p p The a href="http://protectglencove.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/yochadehe-letters-7_25.pdf"open letter/a ldquo;to our friends at Glen Coverdquo; states, ldquo;On behalf of the span data-scayt_word="Yocha" data-scaytid="25"Yocha/span span data-scayt_word="Dehe" data-scaytid="33"Dehe/span span data-scayt_word="Wintun" data-scaytid="42"Wintun/span Nation, I thank you for your efforts to protect the sacred sites here at Glen Cove in the City of Vallejo. With your help, we succeeded in securing a cultural easement that will forever ensure that Native Americans govern the protection of this area so cherished by those who gave us lifehellip; you have persevered through many difficulties and your willingness to support our efforts is so greatly span data-scayt_word="appreciated.”" data-scaytid="4"appreciated.rdquo;/span/p p The span data-scayt_word="Yocha" data-scaytid="26"Yocha/span span data-scayt_word="Dehe" data-scaytid="34"Dehe/span representatives also brought with them the news that the ldquo;reducedrdquo; parking lot still planned by span data-scayt_word="GVRD" data-scaytid="36"GVRD/span is a b2 space/b parking lot for the handicapped. Careful testing will be done to make certain that the area where they want to place this lot contains no cultural materials or human remains./p p a href="http://protectglencove.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/P1060515.jpg"img alt="" class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-3923" height="150" src="http://protectglencove.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/P1060515-150x150.jpg" title="P1060515" width="150" //a/p p This past weekend was packed with special occasions and visitors, including a contingent of island indigenous people from the iOceania Coalition of Northern California/i (span data-scayt_word="OCNC" data-scaytid="43"OCNC/span) that brought gifts and blessings, a delegation from ldquo;a href="http://sites.google.com/site/freepeltierhiphopcampaign/"Free span data-scayt_word="Peltier" data-scaytid="44"Peltier/span, Free Em All/ardquo; with a href="http://socialjustice.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/index.php/Fred_Hampton,_Jr."Fred Hampton span data-scayt_word="Jr" data-scaytid="45"Jr/span/a, and a a href="http://protectglencove.org/2011/hawaii-solidarity-statement/"group of Native Hawaiians/a who stayed late in to the evening, sharing songs and stories of Hawaiian struggles. The Vallejo Intertribal Councilrsquo;s annual Pow-Wow was held in downtown Vallejo over the weekend, and on Sunday, warriors and supporters from span data-scayt_word="Sogorea" data-scaytid="10"Sogorea/span span data-scayt_word="Te" data-scaytid="17"Te/span came out in strong numbers to sing the AIM honoring song and span data-scayt_word="Sogorea" data-scaytid="11"Sogorea/span span data-scayt_word="Te" data-scaytid="18"Te/span song./p