Story Archives 2012

Oy! Manong!... is that you?

From Port-au-Prince to Puebla: Poor People of Color Resist!

 My heart is the drum that makes my feet  dance to the beat… I sing my poetry in Spanglish … I love…fight…struggle… with  knowledge.. I pick the drum  as my weapon to fight for liberation..and revolution.. My brain is from Mexico y America. My   feet are from Africa..

 Our faces Black& Dark Brown like mama Africa, our noses round beautiful like the mountains of the Americas, our pyramids and temples from Egypt to Yucatan, Mexico can’t lie of the connection between my black and brown brothers and sisters.

In high School my teacher once told me that my people were savages, I was taught to hate the color of my skin and the shape of my nose.

Until One day I found myself in the Legion of Honor museum in San Francisco, who was built by the descendants of the people who slave us and stole our land,I was there  to witness an exposition of Aztec and Mayan artifacts, when I seen my nose and face engrave in those great artifacts I knew my people were not savages.

To witness the Olmec head, to see the traits of my African people, I knew we have more in common than the suffering our ancestors  share under colonialism.

To learn about Yanga the first African slave people who free them self’s from Spanish rule in Veracruz, Mexico and created families with indigenous people from the area.

More than 500 years and we are still here breathing  and thriving by any means necessary, and is time we celebrate our resistance and our people.

The

first week of May is the *150th ANNIVERSARY* of The Battle of Puebla (la Batalla de Puebla) when Mexico accomplished its historic defeat over the French occupying army. This victory could not have been accomplished had the Caribbean island of Haiti not proved to be such an inspiration in resisting colonial rule. In 1804, Haiti’s slave rebellion successfully created the first black-led nation to have conquered their colonizers and the first independent nation in all of Latin America.

The people of Haiti and the people of Puebla share a common bond—in Puebla, mestizo soldiers were outnumbered two to one while Black Haitians faced Napoleon’s heavily armed military—but both oppressed peoples prevailed in what many refer to as two David and Goliath victories.

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 One of the main reason, that we decide to organize this event, was to conscience sly bring black and brown people together, as many us know and experience black and brown people are still one the most oppress people in Amerikka  making the majority in prison population, in homicide, in poverty ,ect ,ect, you named it.

And to live pimp free-

To really be truly free-

Is to redesign systems based on eldership, ancestors, Pachamama

And We

To deconstruct all the simple answers of why

we kill each other,

starve our mothers,

shoot and kill our black and brown brothers

incarcerate so many others

excerpt from Living Pimp-Free by tiny

“Pimp-free organizing isn’t affirmative action, which leads to no action, which leads to default segregation and po’lice perpetration. Pimp-free organizing is the recognition, love, respect and honoring of our multi-racial identities, spirits, languages,  culturas y traditions. Our West, East, South and North African peoples teaching with, being with our, Ohlone, Miwok,  Salvadereno, Mayan, Aztec, Roma, Taino. Samoan, Tongan, Philipino, and Yucatec peoples .living, breathing, feeling and understanding, in the deepest sense that our differences is what makes us beautiful and hard, powerful and humble, loud and silent,” Lisa Garcia aka Tiny co-madre de Prensa POBRE

In POOR Magazine we destruct and speak about the separation done  by systems within capitalism that are use to  separate us by Race,Gender,class  and struggles, for the benefit of this system to keep functioning .

We also see the importance to keep building those bridges among communities of color, that many sheros & Heroes have done in the Past and present.

It was beautiful and powerful to read the letter from Sub-comandante Marcos from the Zapatistas EZLN to Mumia Abu-Jamal  to congratulate on his birthday and to stand in solidarity with all political prisoners in Amerikkka.

Sub-comandante Marcos:

We are also “people of color” (the same color as our brothers who have Mexican blood and live and struggle in the American Union). Our color is “brown,” the color of the earth, the color from which we take our history, our strength, our wisdom and our hope. But in order to struggle we add the color black to our brown. We use black ski-masks to show our faces, only then can we be seen and heard. Following the advice of an indigenous Mayan elder, who explained to us the meaning of the color black, we chose this color. Old Don Antonio used to tell us that from black came light and from there came the stars which light up the sky around the world. He recounted a story of a long time ago (in the times when time was not measured)

Through the Americas black and brown people were use to build this civilization where we are found ourselves  captives under capitalism or kill daily, persecuted. More than 500 years of genocide to our people, have fell to exterminate us, and on May 4,2012 we will celebrate our ancestors and that we are still here fighting and resisting.

The people of Haiti and the people of Puebla share a common bond—in Puebla, mestizo soldiers were outnumbered two to one while Black Haitians faced Napoleon’s heavily armed military—but both oppressed peoples prevailed in what many refer to as two David and Goliath victories.

We hope this celebration of community can inspire us to begin to form the strength in what is possibly the most insidious Goliath to date—the United States of America. Only united can people of color be the most powerful David we can be.

Rebecca Luisa (Machetes)

Please join us for a night of poetry, music and resistance as we build Black-Brown solidarity in paying homage to our warrior ancestors who struck back even when the odds were against them!

From Port-au-Prince to Puebla: Poor People of Color Resist!

446 E 12th St, Oakland, CA 94606

• • Friday, May 4, 2012
  • 7:00pm

            ¡Silencio!  Al Robles is missing

It’s way too quiet around here these days & we miss him

This one of a kind poetic daredevil

Transplanted culture personified  …  Adobo con Bebop

With an awe-inspiring playful impish smile

That always let the best in us know we were at home

Lifting up tradition anytime it lost its balance & tried to fall

Trading the tallest of tales in the park

Conjuring strength in ageless Spirits older than time

Or locked in a musical trance, happy to be completely

Under the spell of a Bobby Enriquez tune @ Bajones

A Pinoy Homeboy on a mission

The strength of his soul reborn with every Poem

A loveable rascal defying description

            ¡Silencio!  Where is he?

Al, the Fillmore Flipster

Stalking creativity with a vengeance

Finding pieces of creativity & truth everywhere

In everything

The eternal essence of intelligent existence

Leading him on, dancing word circles all around him

There were days when none of it made any sense, but

Then it was funny & beautiful, ridiculous or ugly

More than once it was both inspiring & tragic

Historic landmarks in the making, a blossoming

Myth building Poems, tons of Stories needing to be told

And they came pouring down like an unstoppable flood

A furious Waterfall

Out of the mouths of angry misused Farm Workers, and

Found themselves all tangled up in the irony of

A meal of Pilipino Soul Food

With a side of Mangos & Collard greens for dessert

            ¡Silencio!  If you were you listening

You could see the tongue in cheek brilliance in the way

He tasted every word as they rolled out of his mouth

In the way he digested the ambiance of Poems being born

And followed the rhythm of words as they came swaggering

Dancing in the streets of North Beach & Cesar’s Latin Palace

Squashed inhibition & found a good part of his heart in the trance

Of hotter than hot Jam sessions @ Jimbo’s Bop City

Al, a Fillmore Flipster, a clever predictable trickster

The undisputed Poet Laureate of Manila Town

Who comfortably wrapped himself in a mixture of

Smiley Winters, Kulingtang, Flip Nuñez & Sarah Vaughan

            ¿Silencio?  The Muse is in mourning

But there will never be enough tears

To wash away the legacy of his vision

The spiritual pride & integrity of his Poetry

Lives in the resurrection of the I-Hotel

Hides behind the hungry laughter of city slick Hustlers

Is buried beneath stolen visions & the exposure of

Soulless big time urban magicians who sell fantasies

To the disillusioned

His powerful word magic conjured

The reclamation of otherwise unacknowledged young men

Young men who’d left their all a world away

On the other side of a sea of broken dreams

But never forgot to take the time to heal, rejoice & laugh

As they partied, gambled, danced the Cha Cha & romanced

Nights & sore backs away @ the California Hotel

Held up the economy on Columbus & the clubs on Broadway

And almost wore out the pavement up & down Kearny & Grant

Then came to on the same old farms picking fruit the next day

            ¿Silencio?

NO!  There is no sadness strong enough

To erase the hipness of his vision

Al Robles, our Fillmore Flipster, our eternal trickster

Magnificent Manong!

It will never be over & we will not be silent!!!

I am the 000.25- the smallest number you can think of in your mind, I didn't even make it to the 99 ....I am the mamaz, daddys and babies living in their cars, criminalized day laborers living in SRO's shelters, jails cells and houses made of card-board....excerpt from I am the 000.25 by tiny aka Lisa Gray-Garcia

Co-madre/Co-editor's note: On May 1st, Migrant, Poverty, disability, indigenous and youth skolaz at POOR Magazine marched, sang, chanted, prayed, decolonized and resisted all false borders and celebrated all the un-seen, unrecognized and criminalized migrant, indigenous and poor workers across Pachamama. Corporate media only reported the so-called violence of the day. We were there, the violence was crafted and planned, and supported by thousands of po'lice officers from multiple counties, standing, following and implicating, tasing and profiling. one of our youth skolaz at POOR- (my son Tiburcio) learned and collaborated with all of his elders in struggle, teachers and care-givers and wrote this report

Pt 1: Working Skolaz
 
May 1st was really fun.  We marched 28 blocks (From Fruitvale BART to Downtown Oakland) for the migrante people who had to cross the border in order to find work.  Also for the bottle collectors "recladores" who have to push shopping carts out in the beaming sun or the blistering rain.  We celebrated the Mariachi performers and the street vendors on this day.  The so called word work, don't only use it in a way that supports us, but we want to spread it out to all.  Not only in the Bay but to the world.
 
Pt. 2: Migrantes from my family
 
In my great ancestors there is a lot of migrante people such as mama Mimi who was Roma and migrated her from Ireland.   The other person, my great Grandpa Roberto migrated here from Puerto Rico.  My other great grandfather Joe, migrated here from the philipines My biological father is the son of chinese and mexican migrants and my tio Tibrcio is an indian revolutionary from Yucatan.

There's a new store in town. It's called "Free Store". All items in the store are free. You should see the look on customers faces when they come in and realize that all items are free. If possible you may bring in something to trade or donate. This idea is not new, it goes back to the 60's, when most communes had one. Today it's mostly been forgotten, but thanks to Occupy and some of it's members there is a free store at 1020 Sullivan ave. in Daly City at the corner of 87th near the I.H.O.P. restaurant.

Free Store is open one day a week on Sat. from 12 noon until 5p.m. Expect a nice assortment of clothes for all, toys, electronic equipment and kitchen and bathroom accessories. Shock and amazement from unexpecting newcomers is not rare. This reporter has seen 5 people ask what items cost and the staff asks, "What does is the name of the store?" It may be closing in a few weeks so we're all hoping to get the word out to others across the country to do the same thing. This idea provides an educational dynamic as an alternative to capitalism, not unlike the good old trading posts. You will see a picture with this article of what the store looks like.

Dedicated to Vivien, Jasmine, Zosia, Janina, Mama Dee and all us mamaz and daughters in struggle across Pachamama

“Ya know how it is,  we mamaz do what we got to do.” Vivian Flaherty Thorp, Xicana mama of three girls, fellow hip hop poet with the welfareQUEEN’s, Poetas POBRE’s of POOR Magazine, and revolutionary advocate fo all peoples, said to me with her usual San Francisco chola meets Vallejo punch the other day as she explained the loving care she provided for one of her  many"clients at her job at Homeless Action Center.

The first time I met my sister in family at POOR Magazine, she was sitting quietly in our first meeting of the welfareQUEEN’s at Mamahouse in 2006 – a home I had started for poor single parent women and children like myself who dealt with isolation, racism and poverty every day in Amerikkka. One of the fall-outs from the lie of capitalism which we speak on and teach on everyday at PeopleSkool (a poor people-led multi-generational, multi-lingual skool which me and mama launched at POOR Magazine)-is the cult of independence. In other words, the myth, perpetrated through media, US skkkooling and Eouro-centric therapy, that we are stronger, saner, better, happier, healthier if we are alone, doing it alone, working alone, living alone, independent and free of the “burden” of the people that brought us into this world and the people we raise and care for. This myth fits perfectly into the necessity for consumption, gentriFUKation, globalization and separation locally and globally.

There are many brutal and violent problems with this myth but one of the deadliest is that isolation kills-. For single parent families like my mama and me - it did almost kill us, until we slowly became decolonized which in turn saved our life and many more mamaz and daddys and children and elders who became part of our family at POOR, the poor people-led organization me and mama started while still houseless n in struggle.

The myth includes the idea that we should separate from our indigenous roots, our belief systems of togetherness, our physical spaces, our shared homes, our shared economies, our elders, our traditions, our medicine, our food, our languages our educations.

Me and Vivien are the daughters of strong, often angry, PTSD-wrought , colonization destroyed women of color, Our mamaz, internalize and perpetrate pain, depression and anger on their own poor bodies of color, bad-food- eating, unexercise-getting bodies. And then we, their daughters, are encouraged by the same colonizers, and Euro-centric, western belief systems who destroyed us and our indigenous ancestors, to “leave our broken families, our broken mamaz, to let go of that burden. To do activism and revolutionary work and organizing and art, for other peoples, but most of all “to go on with our lives” for own self-interests, oddly enough the same message given in the Child Protective Services (CPS) that steal children away from families in struggle rather than support the poor parents to raise their own children.

Vivien, never did, she listens to mama, cries for her mama, holds her mama and cooks for her mama, she gets put down and yelled at and accused by mama too. This is the deep struggle of love and eldership in our post-colonial, deconstructed communities 

I never did either, holding my poor indigenous mama’s broken body til the day she transitioned far too young, dying of heart disease directly related to the torture she suffered as an unwanted of color in Amerikkka foster homes and orphanages and subsequently bad food and poor people medicine access available to poor wombyn of color in the US, We lived together, we collaborated, we worked together, we struggled together and we decolonized together and one of the things I am the most proud of, no matter how hard it got, was that for a short moment of philanthro-pimed love I was able to create a revolutionary social work job for my fierce and brilliant mama.

These values of holding our elders, maintaining our multi-generational homes and rebuking capitalist separatist values so vehemently taught in this capitalist society are some of the things we teach and practice at POOR Magazine’s PeopleSkool  to our young people raising up in the 21st century reality filled with the propaganda of US media, racist and classist laws against poor and disabled children and families and  communities

Vivien is a fierce single mama with three beautiful daughters who began her youth as a singer with a powerful 80’s rock/ska band, and has since struggled to raise her babies through houselessness, domestic violence and welfare scarcity models. Vivien fought those scarcity models, like my mama Dee did, by any means necessary so she could acquire a degree (the paper) from a formal institution of learning and eventually work to give back to her community in full force as she does now at the Homeless Action Center in Oakland, while still contributing her love and time and art and poverty skolarship with all of us skolaz in residence at POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE and our newest revolution of HOMEFULNESS.

Vivien is a powerful mama, an amazing auntie, a deep and strong sister and a very good daughter, Together Vivien and I and all us welfareQUEEN’s and caregivers in struggle tryin to survive and resist Capitalist lies are teaching ourselves back what was stolen from us. It isn’t easy. Inter-Dependence Never is.

Scroll Down for Inglish...

Por amor a los hijos a veces  perdemos la vida.  Por que ellos son todo para nosotros y nunca queremos que estén solos.

Por eso hay mucha gente que cuando han sido deportados intentan regresar a este país por su familia, pero en el intento muchas personas mueren. Ya sea por las pandillas en el camino o por las autoridades que se sienten dueñas de la vida de otras personas, que no tienen alma y son demasiados malvados. 

Yo siento el corazón lo traigo en la garganta porque soy una mujer inmigrante y soy madre. Me duele que la migra  sea demasiada  odiosa, hay acaben con la vida de gente trabajadora y padres de familia que solo están cruzando las fronteras para poder abrasar a sus hijos. Por eso nos matan, y como nosotros no tenemos armas conque defendernos ellos nos matan como si nosotros los inmigrantes fuéramos ratones .

En el año 2010  a las 8 de la noche el dia viernes 28 de Mayo  en la garita de San Isidro Tijuana mas de 20 agentes de inmigración  y otros ofíciales golpearon a Anastasio Hernandez, un padre mexicano de 5 hijos. Lamentablemente falleció por una gran golpiza que le dieron los ofíciales de la migra, a pesar de tantos gritos y suplicas de el Mexicano. Es como si ellos estuvieran sordos. Unas personas que pasaban por allí grabaron unos videos para que la gente se de cuenta el odio racial que tiene la migra a los inmigrantes.

Yo no se a cuanta gente han asesinado, porque solo se lavan las manos y hasta dicen que las cámaras no sirvíeron ese dia. Alo mejor es cierto y por eso se aprovechan de hacer con la gente lo que se les da su regalada gana

Lo que hicieron con el señor Hernández no se vale porque ya le avían amarrado las manos,  lo tenían en el suelo tirado y lo estaban golpeando mas de 20 asesinos.  Digo porque aunque no lo acepten, la migra es eso porque lo tenían como si fueran leones rodeando a un venado cuando lo tienen atrapado. Todos se lamben la trompa saboreándoselo. Así igual  se ven en el video  los de la migra, esperando a que ora esta persona moraría para celebrar,  según ellos, su victoria. A pesar de todo esto yo pienso que según dicen los testigos uno de ellos les hizo señales y saco su pistola eléctrica para acabar con el señor Hernández y lo logro porque eso fue lo que rebelo la autopsia. Dos descargas eléctricas provocaron la muerte de el señor Anastasio dejando a su esposa y sus hijos solos.

Por eso yo me siento como si fuera un hijo de el.

Pues yo también pase por ese dolor de perder a mi padre cuando era una niña  de tan solo 10 años y a pesar que el asesino de mi padre fue el cáncer me duele el Corazón.

No quiero ni pensar como se sienten los hijos de el, ya que an pasado dos años. Con cada día que pasa se ve la ausencia, de verdad que no tengo palabras para estas personas que provocaron su muerte. Solo les digo que Dios los perdone y que no encuentren paz en sus corazones hasta que se rindan al que es dueño de la vida y de verdad ya quiero que paren de hacer esto con las personas inocentes. Pónganse la mano en la conciencia, si es que tienen  nosotros a veces venimos huyendo de nuestros países y no es justo que nos maten.

English continues....

For the love of our children we sometimes loose our life.

Because they mean everything to us and we never want them to be alone.

That is why there are a lot of people who when they are deported they once again try to return to this country for their families, but in the intent many die. Whether it be  because of gang violence on the road or because of the authorities that feel as if they own the life of others, they have no soul and they are terrible.

I feel my heart stuck on my throat because I am a migrant woman and I am mother. It hurts me that ICE/ Migra are so hateful, they end the lives of hard working people and a families father that is only crossing the border to be able to hold his children. This is why they kill us, and since we do not have weapons with which we can defend ourselves they kill us as if we migrants were rats.

In the year 2010 at 8 O ‘clock at night of the friday on May 28 in the Shelter of Saint Isidro Tijuana more than 20 ICE agents and other officials beat Anastasio Hernandez, a Mexican  father  of 5 children.

Sadly, he died that night for the brutal beating that these ICE officials perpertraited on this man, regardless of the many screams and pleas that were heard from the Mexican. It’s as if they were deaft. Some passer buys even recorded videos of the event so people will realize how deep the racial hate is from the Migra toward the migrant.  I don’t even know how many people have been murdered, because they simply wash their hands and even said that the cameras were not working that day. Maybe it’s true and that’s why they take advantage and do whatever they please with our people. What they did to Mr. Hernandez is uncalled for because his hands were already tied behind his back, they had him thrown on the floor and the beating came down by 20 killers. I say killers, even if you might not agree because this is what ICE is because they had him circulated as if they were lions circulating a dear that is being trapped. All of them licking their teeth savoring the moment.  This is how it happened if you look in the video, the officers waiting  for the hour of this persons death to celebrate, according to them, their victory. Regardless of this I think according to the testimonies one of them made signals took out his stunt gun to finish off this Mr. Hernandez and with success too, this is the findings from the autopsy.

Two discharges caused the death of Mr. Anastacio leaving behind and alone his wife and kids. This is why I feel as if I was his son. Because I too went through the pain of loosing my father when I was a young girl of 10 years, and even though the killer of my father was cancer it still breaks my heart.  I don’t even want to think about how his children feel right now, even after two years of the occurance. With everyday that goes by you can see the absence, in truth I have no words to express what I feel for those persons that caused his death. I want to say may god forgive them and may they never find peace in their hearts until they give up their soul to the owner of life and honestly, I just want them to stop harming Innocent people. Put your hand on your conscience, if you do have one, we sometimes are fleeing our own countries and it is not fair that it causes our death. 

Indigenous Peoples Media Project of POOR Magazine stands in solidarity with the Global Indigenous Youth Caucus attending the 11th session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. The topic for this forum is the Doctrine of Discovery. Some of the members of the caucus were banned earlier due to the Action the Caucus held demanding the full participation of the youth. This silenced was not tolerated and the youth continued to speak their voice. Later on, their badges were reinstated. Please check out the video to listen to their statement on the Doctrine of Discovery.

The Doctrine of Discovery stems back to the papal bulls put forth by the Roman Catholic Church, which supports decisions that ignore any claims indigneous peoples have to the land and gives authority to colonial governments. This is the basis for many cases in international law and a huge basis for Federal Indian Law here in the United States. It is important to note that without this doctrine the privatization of land would have never been possible in the case law decision of Johnson VS McIntosh in 1823.

(PNN-TV: PNN Panhandler Correspondent re-ports at POOR Magazine's Community Newsroom - May 2012)

(Photo: Ro Seidelman/PNN)

kkkleaning up "The City"

By Terrilyn Woodfin

THIS IS THE ONLY COUNTRY I KNOW WHERE WE USE OUR OWN AND CAST THEM AWAY WHEN WE NO LONGER NEED THEM. IT IS ALSO THE ONLY COUNTRY I KNOW OF THAT TREATS OUTSIDERS BETTER THAN THEIR OWN. I SAY THAT'S BACKWARDS. MY STORY IS ABOUT A MAN WHO WHEN I MET HIM HAD THE WARMEST DEMEANOR THAT I HAD SEEN IN SOME TIME,A SWEET AND GENTLE SOUL YET WEARY AND WORN.

HE IS AFFECTIONATELY KNOWN AS PAPA BEAR AND HE PAN HANDLES TO SURVIVE BECAUSE AMERIKKKA HAS CAST HIM AWAY LIKE SO MANY OTHER MEN AND WOMEN WHO HAVE GIVEN THEIR LIVES FOR THE CONTINUED "FREEDOM" AS THEY AMERIKKKA CALLS IT!

HIS GIVEN NAME IS ABDULLAH WARITH BORN AUGUST 12, 1950 AND IS OF ARAB-AMERICAN DESCENT BORN IN CINCINNATI, OHIO AND RAISED IN CLEVELAND, OHIO. HE TOLD ME THAT HE KNEW MALCOLM X PERSONALLY AND THAT HE ENCOURAGED HIM TO GO TO MECCA TO SEARCH THE TRUE MUSLIM BELIEF,AS WE ALL KNOW THAT HE DID AND RETURNED WITH A DIFFERENT MESSAGE BEFORE HE WAS TAKEN OUT BY HIS OWN FOLLOWERS.

HE HAS SERVED IN TWO BRANCHES OF THE U.S. MILITARY: TWO YEARS IN THE MARINES AND THREE YEARS IN THE ARMY. HE ALSO SERVED FOR 18 MONTHS IN WHAT HE CALLED HELL AND IT MUST HAVE BEEN JUST THAT BECAUSE I'VE HEARD FROM OTHER SURVIVORS OF WAR TESTIFY TO THAT SAME CLAIM....THE VIETNAM WAR! I CAN SAY THAT PARTICULAR WAR BROUGHT BACK SOME OF THE MOST BROKEN SOLDIERS I'VE EVER HEARD OF. THEY WENT IN OKAY AND CAME OUT DIFFERENT. WE MAY NEVER KNOW WHAT ALL HAPPENED THERE SO MANY YEARS AGO BUT YOU CAN REST ASSURE THAT MANY FAMILIES HAVE HAD TO LIVE WITH THE UNWANTED BENEFITS OF IT.

BECAUSE OF PAPA BEAR'S NAME WHICH WAS GIVEN TO HIM BY HIS PARENTS AND OUR CAUTIOUS FEELINGS AND ACTION AFTER 9/11 OUR VERY OWN HOMELAND SECURITY IS CONSTANTLY HARASSING THIS MAN AS BEING A TERRORIST...REALLY? BECAUSE HIS NAME IS ABDULLAH (WHICH I RESEARCHED IT'S MEANING: HIS NAME MEANS SERVANT OF GOD)? IS THAT A REASON JUDGE A PERSON? SHOULD NOT HE BE JUDGED ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS? THE REAL QUESTION IS WHAT DID HE DO TO CAUSE HIM TO BE HARASSED BY THE ONES WHO ARE TO PROTECT AND SERVE US ON A NATIONAL LEVEL? I'LL TELL YOU, NOTHING! THAT'S WHAT HE DID NOTHING! I TAKE THAT BACK HE DID DO SOMETHING, HE SERVED THIS COUNTRY,THAT'S HIS CRIME!

IF THAT ISN'T ENOUGH NOW HE'S GOT THE OWNERS OF A HOTEL HARASSING AND TORMENTING HIM. THEY SAY HE'S A NUISANCE AND HE SCARES THE CUSTOMERS AWAY. SO I PAID THEM A VISIT TO SEE WHAT THE PROBLEM WAS. LET ME FIRST SAY THAT IT'S IN THE FREAKIN TENDERLOIN OF ALL PLACES, ARE YOU SERIOUS? THEY WANNA HASSLE ONE MAN WHO ISN'T BOTHERING ANYBODY WHEN MOST OF THE TL IS RIDDLED WITH DRUG ADDICTS AND THE SUCH TO INCLUDE A HOST OF TRANSIENTS ALL OVER THAT AREA AND YOU GONNA HASSLE ONE?! SECONDLY I WENT IN AND WAS WARMLY WELCOMED, I EVEN ASKED TO VIEW A ROOM AND WAS ALLOWED TOO, IT WAS OKAY BUT WHEN SHE (THE FRONT DESK CLERK)OPENED THE DOOR I ALMOST HAD AN ASTHMA ATTACK, THE DARK, DAMP MILDEWY SMELL THAT MET ME WAS A LITTLE OVERWHELMING, THE VIEW WAS THE "LOVELY" ALLEY THAT PAPA BEAR WAS ATTACKED IN BY THE OWNERS THAT HE SAID HOSED HIM AND ALL HIS WORLDLY POSSESSIONS WITH A POWER HOSE LIKE HE WAS AN ANIMAL OR WORSE...TRASH.

I ASKED WHO THE OWNERS OF THE MONARCH HOTEL WERE WHICH IS LOCATED AT 1015 GEARY STREET,AT THE CORNER OF GEARY AND POLK HERE IN SAN FRANCISCO. THE DESK CLERK ASKED ME WHY I WANTED TO KNOW WHO THE OWNERS WERE AND I TOLD HER THAT IN KNOWING WHO THE OWNERS WERE WOULD HELP ME IN KNOWING OF WHAT QUALITY THE ROOM WOULD BE. SHE THEN INFORMED ME IN A KIND OF NERVOUS SMIRK THAT THEY WERE INDIANS THE ONES FROM INDIA. NOT TO MENTION THE $129.00 PLUS TAX PER NIGHT THAT WOULD BE CHARGED, WHAT A FREAKIN RIP-OFF!

WHERE IS PAPA BEAR TODAY? WHO KNOWS, HE HAS TO MOVE AROUND SO HE'S NOT BADGERED BY THE COPS CONSTANTLY ON HIS HEELS. BUT I TELL YOU WHAT IF YOU SEE HIM BE KIND YOU NEVER KNOW WHO YOU'RE PASSING BY, HUMMM MAYBE A SERVANT OF GOD.