Pop Pop-Connect the Genocidal Dots

Dedicated to Andy Lopez, Kenny Harding Jr, Idriss Stelly, Ernesto Duenez Jr James Rivera Jr, Kayla Moore, Derrik Gaines Jr, Mario Romero, Kerry Baxter Jr, Oscar Grant and so many more...

Our Babies have Been Shot
By these Occupying Armies Called
Kkkops

But Wait,
This Happened Before...

Andy  Lopez was only 13.  

Walking down the same Santa Rosa street

A toy gun strapped on his belt 

The Po Po saw him & even tho he

was jus a kid-to them he was a thief

he bout' to put

the gun down but he dint' know

police yelling at him tellin' him "This

aint a show!" 

Five rounds were shot or

maybe three.  I really dont care

because Andy Lopez's spirit will

always be free.

(Editor's note.  The graphic of Al Robles by Ted Visaya)

We live in a time of amnesia, deletion—of communities.  With gadgets we garner “friends” and—just as quickly—delete them whimsically out of existence.  Poet Al Robles refused to buy into the culture of amnesia.  Robles’ poetic and community work documented the lives of Filipino elders who lived in the International Hotel in San Francisco’s Manilatown.  He knew the heart of the community--who was having a problem with the landlord, who needed help with their doctor, who needed help with the bureaucratic systems that mock people with institutionalized disdain.  He knew the community without a cell phone, computer or application.  He was part of the fight for the I-Hotel, in which the community organized against the eviction of elders who lived there.  The owner wanted to convert the hotel into a parking lot to accommodate the insatiable hunger for land by the expanding financial district.  The hotel became the epicenter for the fight for housing rights in the city in 1977, a battle that still rages with the rampant landlordism and an eviction epidemic that is an all-out assault on elders (as well as families and artists) that is nothing short of elder abuse.

The epidemic of Ellis Act evictions compels us to remember the I-Hotel.  This past Thursday, in a show of passion, compassion and strength, elders from Chinatown converged on city hall to protest the evictions that are preying upon elders such as the Lee family, a senior couple in their late 70’s who care for their disabled daughter.  The Lee’s lived in their rent controlled unit on Jackson and Larkin Streets for over 30 years.  After a delay in the eviction and community outcry, the Lee’s were forced to leave and are now living in a hotel until they can find stable housing.  The protest by Chinese elders had a message for the mayor (whose name is also Lee): Things are out of balance.  Ellis Act evictions in San Francisco have increased 80% from last year.  Seniors live in fear because that they will be evicted at any time. 

In this tech-driven culture where friends are made by the click of a button and deleted just as quickly,  we find that our communities are being deleted—the Mission, Bayview, Fillmore.  Have we not remembered the lessons of our elders, the lessons of the I-Hotel?  The eviction epidemic, fueled largely by tech money, has meant death and sickness for elders looking to keep a roof over their heads.  And how has the tech industry reacted?  Not a tweet to be read (or heard).

Activists like Al Robles and Bill Sorro did not forget.  They fought the battle for the I-Hotel more than 30 years ago when the developers, who knew nothing about building community, let the site of the hotel sit as a hole in the ground.  Al Robles, Bill Sorro, Emil DeGuzman, and others who cared for community and  honored their elders, insisted that nothing less than decent, low income affordable senior housing be built on the site of the former I-Hotel.  After 30 years, it became a reality with the opening of the new I-Hotel with 105 units of senior housing.  Every Ellis Act or unlawful eviction is a desecration of the memory of the elders that stood up and fought for the I-Hotel.  The Ellis Act has dealt a poisonous hand upon our elders, preying upon them in the name of real estate speculation.  The I-Hotel calls for the end to the Ellis Act because as long as this unjust law exists, our elders, families and working community are not safe. 

Thousands of Power-FUL young people demand justice for Andy Lopez

Crying now and I’m not going to stop crying. Today’s tears are for 13 year young Andy Lopez shot by Santa Rosa Sheriff’s for holding a toy gun he was returning to a friend. Yesterday it was for Manuel Diaz Jr from Anaheim and last week it was for Kenny Harding Jr from San Francisco and the week before it was for Trayvon Martin and Ernesto Duenez Jr and  two years ago it was for Oscar Grant and ten years ago it was for Idriss Stelley. And while Im crying for all these babies shot by the occupying armies called Po’Lice I’m crying for their mamaz who brought them life in the Indigenous stolen land called  Amerikkka built by the wite-supremacist men who stole it.

“F- tha Police, there was no reason for Andy to be shot. This was murder,” said 17 year old Gabriel who was one of thousands of young, activated people who marched out of their high school, with the blessing of their conscious teachers to the Santa Rosa City Hall and then to the Santa Rosa Sheriff’s department demanding justice. He and other angry and hurt young peoples spoke with myself and my fellow Prensa POBRE familia, Vivi T and Tiburcio who went there to march, cry and scream with all those young leaders.

“What do we want justice ? – when do we want it.? . Now!!!”, the  voices screamed, chanted, shouted. They were loud, they were focused and they weren’t giving up.

We stood together, youth, mamaz, tias y tios, refusing to leave, refusing to stay quiet any longer, in front of the closed doors of the welfare-food stamps-jail complex of Santa Rosa. The plantations doors were sealed shut like a coffin. A metaphor for the death of so many behind their plantation walls.

Andy Lopez' parents stood to the side of the huge crowd, crying, shell-shocked, lost, almost confused, tears never leaving their cheeks, eyes filled with the deepest sorrow that no-one could ever be inside unless you had experienced the loss of your baby.

Me and Vivi saw that hole in their hearts, we saw it in a way beyond words. We held our own children closer and wrapped our own souls and arms around theirs. 

“He was my brothers friend, he was just walking home, he wasn’t hurting anyone, they didn’t need to kill him,” Maria, 16 shouted above the chants to PNN family. She couldn’t say anymore, her words became more tears.

Maria’s tears joined my tears and the thousands of other tears to become a river that rolled down the streets of Santa Rosa into the streets of Oakland and into the streets of San Francisco and reached all the way into the gated, racist community of Sanford, Florida, lifting us up to our young ancestor warrior suns so we will never stop focusing on the justice we must demand.

Next Actions:Tuesday, Oct 29th, @ 12:00 noon - -Santa Rosa Junior College - 1501 Mendocino ave- Santa Rosa,
-Old Courthouse Square- 300 Mendocino Ave- Santa Rosa

@3pm- Sonoma County Sheriff's Dept 2796 Ventura Ave Santa Rosa, Ca

Krip-Hop Nation (KHN) - Hello I’m so glad you said yes to an interview!  First of all your work is beautiful.  Tell us you call yourself a Deaf Muslim Punk Playwright please explains.

Sabina England – Thank you for asking me to do this interview for Krip-Hop Nation! As you know, I support your works and I’m a big admirer of your organization. I’m grateful for your support and friendship. Anyway, just so we are clear, I didn’t originally call myself a Deaf Muslim Punk Playwright. A Pakistani Muslim teenager in Norway who had followed my works online and was an admirer created the name of my Facebook public page.

So I was surprised to see a page about myself on there, and I became friends with her, and she talked to me about the Islamophobia, racism, xenophobia in Norway that a lot of Muslims, both immigrants and European-born youths, faced from other people. She was drawn to my works, to my anger and political awareness in my art, to my struggle existing as a Deaf South Asian Muslim woman of color immigrant punk rocker in a hearing white man’s world.

Eventually I took over the Facebook page. I like the name of the Facebook page, because it helps shows the world that I am: Deaf, Muslim, Punk, and Playwright. I wanted deaf people out there to see my name come up in results for “deaf” and see that there’s a working deaf artist who has a career in theatre, filmmaking and playwriting, these fields which are very difficult for deaf people to break into. I also wanted Muslims to find me in search results and see that there’s a Muslim woman filmmaker / artist / performer. I wanted other Muslim women to find me and enjoy my works.

And I wanted the world-- whether hearing, deaf, non-Muslim, or Muslim, to see that I am not a stereotypical “deaf and dumb” girl, or that I was NOT a “helpless  / oppressed” Muslim girl who needed to be saved.

KHN - As a Deaf Muslim woman on stage, do you want the audience to listen and feel the communities that you are from and if so how do you get them into your art/performances?

Sabina England –Yes. In a way I want the audience to know that we EXIST, we are here, and we have many stories to tell, and we are NOT invisible! Being deaf, I incorporate American Sign Language in my stage performances, because it’s easier for me to express myself through sign language when I perform. I can speak, but I find it easier if I am allowed both forms of communication. I also find that sign language is richer and more diverse in storytelling, while making it accessible to both deaf and hearing audiences. I also want to force the hearing audience to have a new experience while watching me perform.

As a deaf person, I struggle everyday with communication issues and missing out the beauty of music, sounds of nature and people and animals, etc. I am missing out something really important yet so simple that hearing people experience everyday for their rest of their lives, you know? So when I perform in ASL, the hearing audiences may not understand me 100% and I want it that way. I want them to really pay close attention and watch me and try to understand what I am saying, while the deaf audiences get to fully enjoy and understand me! So I want the hearing audiences to have a completely new experience while watching me.

As an Indian woman, I take stories and elements from my North Indian culture. I also incorporate visual aesthetics from my culture, such as traditional and modern Indian clothes, or using Indian music (whether classic or modern), Indian-style make-up. I am very inspired by the diversity of India; we have so many different religions, tribes, languages, and cultures in our motherland. Our history is great and rich. We have strong traditions in storytelling, dance, music, singing, and art. Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis, Jains, Buddhists, and other Indian Muslims inspire me. India inspires me; it is part of my soul and plays a very heavy role in my works.

As a Muslim woman, I take spiritual themes from my Islamic faith, such as protecting Mother Earth and honoring our home for all human beings, having respect for fellow humans and all other religions and cultures, and understanding the concept of Jihad (“Struggle”), to defend our souls, minds, and bodies against the dark, ugly things in the world (such as racism, homophobia, misogyny, audism, ableism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, hatred, bigotry, violence, cruelty, loneliness, etc.…)… strive to be happy, learn to love each other, defend our homes, and protect our Mother Earth.

KHN- Off stage you are behind a camera and pen.  As director you created “Wedding Night” which in the trailer it says that Husband & Wife meet for the first time at the wedding.  That is gripping tell us more.

Sabina England – I am from Bihar, India, and I have a very large family in India and overseas. Our family is a mixture of both modern and traditional. Arranged marriages are still very common amongst many Indians, and in our family as well. Just so that I want you and everyone else to know, arranged marriages are usually NOT forced, but usually happen when the woman asks her parents to arrange the marriage. In my family, arranged marriages only happen when the woman or man ask for it to happen. There are no forced marriages in my family. For me, personally, I could never have an arranged marriage, so I will never have one.

So anyway… I have a very active imagination and I always keep asking questions about everything. I’m thinking about something new every day. So, yeah… I’ve wondered what happened between a husband and wife for the first time on their wedding night, and what would happen if they discover they were completely wrong for each other. I thought it would be an interesting story. I wrote the script, planned the production for about 6-7 months, got an actress from Los Angeles and flew her to St. Louis, and shot the film over 3 days, and had the film professionally edited in a small town in Iowa. The film premiered at Tribeca Cinemas in New York City and I got to meet some famous filmmakers such as Mira Nair and Aparna Sen, both that inspire me greatly with their films. It was an incredible experience that I will never forget, and the experience made me even more determined and hungry to keep making films.

KHN – As an author you wrote and self-published your first novel, Urdustan (A Collection of Short Stories), a book of short stories about South Asians from all walks of life.  Why did you think this book is important and tell us why you end up self-publishing it?

Sabina England – The book has many short stories and features characters from different backgrounds. There are Hindus and Muslims, Indians and Pakistanis, punk rockers and deaf youths, Hasidic Jews and gay people. All the short stories were loosely inspired by true events in my life.

You know how some people out there claim that they don’t see race that they are colorblind, and race doesn’t matter? You know those people I’m talking about? That shit really bugs me. We ARE different, and race DOES matter. We all have different experiences based on our gender, race, disability, sexuality, religion, etc. And I wanted to show the readers that… look; we are NOT all the same. We are all different! We all have different experiences. We will not experience love or friendship the same way!

But in the end, we all want the same things in life… Love, friendship, happiness, family, respect, acceptance.  But we all experience those things in different ways, we have different experiences, and that’s fine. I wanted to show that in Urdustan.

I went the self-publishing route because I hate sitting around waiting for letters from agents or publishers. And it can take a long time for books to be professionally printed by a publishing house. Anyway, I like to have complete control over my works, so I felt that self-publishing was the best option for me.

KHN mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> - Your short videos are a mixture of politics, laughter, nature and such.  Please give us a brief rundown on “Allah Save the Punk!” And "Allah Earth.”

Sabina England – I made “Allah Save the Punk!” because I wanted to do a light comedy with a storyline using both punk rockers and religious extremists from a Muslim punk rock perspective. Growing up in Northern England in the 1980s, I always liked punk rock and I was just drawn to the subculture for its sheer anger and energy, but also for its political awareness. I just wanted to have fun and make other Muslims laugh at ourselves. Humor is the best medicine! We all know that one person in our community who’s a self-righteous, holier-than-thou person, and I wanted to create a self-righteous character that is so full of themselves and so extreme in their beliefs. I created the Mullah, who was so religious and holy, but somehow ended up with a punk rock daughter. That’s pretty funny, right?!

 Also the title “Allah Save the Punk!” was inspired from “God Save the Queen” by Sex Pistols. 

I shot, wrote, and filmed “Allah Earth” in Costa Rica. I underwent some changes in my life, both mentally and spiritually. I was starting to figure out my place in the world and I had almost attained a sense of happiness. I had been working with a musician group called Lux Ascension, which incorporates music with performance art and storytelling, and I worked with Bryson Gerard (who moved to St. Louis from Los Angeles). He inspired me to go off and try something on my own. I was also a big lover of Sufi poetry. Sufi poets are all about love and connecting with Allah on a greater, intimate level. So I wanted to incorporate sign language into a poem about Mother Earth, and have it stylistically influenced by Sufi poetry. I thought Costa Rica was the perfect place for that because it’s such a beautiful country and the people there take great pride in their environment and take good care of Mother Earth.

Today “Allah Earth” has developed into a live theatre project, and will premiere in London on April 2014 and then go on to the St. Louis Fringe Festival, hopefully.

KHN mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> - On your website it says you are apart of S.O.S Records, an underground Los Angeles streetpunk label, and have often been linked to the Taqwacores scene.  Please explain.

Sabina England – I was a friend with Rob Chaos, the lead singer from Total Chaos, we became friends on MySpace in the mid 00s and stayed in touch. He liked some of my posts and liked my attitude so he asked me to be the face of S.O.S Records, they printed out promotional flyers with my face and put it up at punk shows everywhere! I was also asked to appear in Taqwacore (the documentary) and I said no because I had some problems at the time and I didn’t feel ready to do the project. So they used one of my photos (with my permission) and put it in the film. So ever since then a lot of people have associated me with both.

KHN mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> - You lived in the UK and the US as a Deaf Muslim artist/writer/filmmaker which country has been open to your work/politics and what are the politics of both countries that make it into your art?

Sabina England – This is a hard question to answer, but I will try my best. I think the UK is a better place for South Asians because South Asians are the largest minority group so we have a better representation in the media and we are very much a huge part of British society. Chicken tikka was also made in England (not India), and some of the best South Asian actors in Hollywood came from England, and so many British people can identify famous South Asians, and some Bollywood stars such as Shilpa Shetty became break-out stars in England. Major cities in England, Scotland and Wales have large heavy South Asian communities. When I lived in England, I felt very Indian and British. Yet in the USA, I’ve never felt American. I’ve always felt… foreign. (for the record, I am a dual citizen of UK and USA).

So in Great Britain, there are better opportunities for South Asians in theatre, film and television. I cannot say the same for South Asians in the USA (I say this from my own perspective, of course, and many other South Asians will disagree with me). Also, the Arts Council of England gives out money to artists, filmmakers, theatre companies, etc. and they give out grants to POC artists. That would never happen here in the USA, since so many Americans have such an anti-artist attitude and would never want the U.S government to fund the arts.  So yeah, I think for South Asians, it’s better to be in Britain than USA.

As for the Deaf, I think it’s hard anywhere on Earth for the deaf to break into, but USA and UK offer better opportunities for the deaf, so deaf artists would probably do better there than in other parts of the world.

And for Muslims… there’s a lot of Islamophobia in the UK and USA…so I don’t know how to answer this one.

KHN mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> - Can you share with us your piece, "Being Deaf,"

Sabina England – “Being Deaf” was one of my first poems I wrote as a child, I think I was in 6^th grade. I was almost 13 at that time. My body was going through hormone changes, and I felt very alone and fucked up emotionally. I had been mainstreamed in a hearing school so I was placed in a hearing environment with hearing students for the first time in my life. Before, I had been around deaf children all my childhood. I felt more comfortable around the deaf. But being around hearing students, I felt being judged, stared at, and whispered. I was also an Indian Muslim, and people at the school were all white, WASPish, And All-American. I did not fit in at all. “Being Deaf” had lines about me struggling with speech therapy and feeling left out in the dark and feeling frustrated with my speech problems and trying to communicate with hearing people.

KHN mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> –I saw you in San Francisco in 2012 at the Women’s Building and you had visuals, audio, sign language all focus about being a Deaf Muslim woman.  I think you made a video about your piece.  Can you explain that piece for us?

Sabina England – It was for a South Asian women’s festival called Yoni Ki Baat. Yoni Ki Baat is a festival that celebrates the diversity and stories of South Asian women from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, all over the Indian subcontinent. One of my friends, a musician and recording artist named Micropixie, a fellow South Asian woman, who lives in San Francisco, contacted me and suggested that I write a piece for Yoni Ki Baat, so that she and I would perform together. I liked the idea so I wrote a piece called Ugly/Beautiful Brown/White. The poem was about my childhood struggle about being brown, and how much I hated being brown and Indian.

I thought that I was very ugly for having dark skin, black hair, and dark eyes. The poem also detailed how I would drink milk to lighten my skin, and I’d often pray to Allah, asking to become white. I was surrounded by images of white girls and white women everywhere in the media, so it had a very negative impact on my self-esteem. The poem also detailed about how I came to accept my brown skin and began to see myself as beautiful.  A lot of South Asians in the audience loved it because they all went through something similar in their childhoods, too.

KHN mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> - Have you worked with Deaf musicians/rappers?

Sabina England – No, not yet. But I would love to.

KHN mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> – What is your advice for other Deaf women of color who want to do what you do?

Sabina England – You really have to believe in yourself. When you start out, no one else is going to help you. You have to be brave and put yourself out there and share your works. Look for any opportunities to work with other artists, musicians, filmmakers, or poets. Network your butt off, get your name out there, and go to as many arts events as possible. Volunteer if you can, and make other people remember you so that in the future maybe they’ll contact you if there’s an opportunity for you. Put yourself on many social networking platforms, and engage yourself with the public but do it in a very positive way.

Oh… and everyone should know this... if  you support other artists, they’re likely to support you back, too.

KHN mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> - How can people get in contact with you?

Sabina England – They can contact me through my website contact form. I am  also on Twitter and Facebook, so people can send me a message or tweet me! I also have a YouTube channel that people can subscribe and watch, and a blogspot where I publish some of my short stories and poems.

www.SabinaEngland.com

www.facebook.com/SabinaEngland

www.twitter.com/SabinaEngland (@SabinaEngland)

www.youtube.com/velmasabina

http://DeadAmericanDream.blogspot.com

KHN mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> - What is one thing in your profession/world that piss you off and how do you deal with it?

Sabina England – Lack of accessibility for deaf people in film, theatre, and performing arts… being deaf is already hard enough but even harder trying to get jobs or be involved in the film / theatre industries without using an interpreter or not being able to lip-read well… and this other thing especially upsets me.. I notice there are practically NO fellowships, grants and paid opportunities for the deaf in all artistic fields, especially film and performance art.

Also there is a lot of hidden racism toward deaf people of color in the arts. I could not find any information on film grants or fellowships for the deaf, yet a black deaf filmmaker had claimed that some white deaf filmmakers were given money by relay organizations to fund their films while deaf filmmakers of color were ignored. She is probably right because I’ve seen deaf films that were sponsored and funded by organizations, yet these films feature almost all white males who were deaf. I don’t see much race diversity in these films!!! I believe she is telling the truth.

How do I deal with it? I believe in myself, I keep working hard, and I do things myself because I know nobody else will. I am not going to be angry all the time and let the anger consume my soul. I just got to be positive and keep going and ignore the hurdles that society tries to place in front of me.

KHN mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> – Any last words?

Sabina England – You won’t hear the end of me, this is just the beginning!

Oakland - With the long lasting effects of the on-going draconian sequestration budget cuts occurring including the recent government shutdown, people in Oakland and across the nation are being stepped on, abused, and treated like a punching bag.

Due to the on-going sequestration automatic across-the-board spending cuts ($1.2 trillion in on-going spending cuts), and the loss of tens of thousands of jobs as a direct result, it has become even more difficult for residents in Oakland to find work. It is very difficult to find employment that pays a living-wage, or to receive assistance for food, housing, energy bills, transportation needs, health care, dental work, child care or day care services.

The Section 8 housing choice voucher program is also at risk in Oakland because the Oakland Housing Authority is facing over $11 million in budget cuts since the on-going sequestration budget cuts took effect on March 1, 2013 that threaten thousands of low-income renters with higher rent increases, or the possible loss of their vouchers someday. Low-income families in the Section 8 voucher program pay 30 to 40 percent of their income in rent each month, and the rest of the rent is paid to the landlord by the federal program.

Because the Democrats joined the Republicans in allowing the sequestration budgets cuts to continue in the latest political deal known as a "continuing resolution" that ended the government shutdown on October 16, it appears to be a very grim situation for Section 8 voucher holders in Oakland, San Francisco, Berkeley and people in cities all across the nation. Housing officials claim that 140,000 voucher holders are at risk of losing their vouchers because of the sequestration budget cuts. 

The sequestration budget cuts are also shredding the Meals on Wheels Program that feeds senior citizens, and includes massive budget cuts to education, food programs, small business, food safety, mental health programs, emergency responders, Native American programs, public housing, head start, homelessness programs, AIDS and HIV treatment services, Community Development Block Grants, and many other vital services or programs.

Affordable housing developers scheme to grab Section 8 vouchers and public housing

Local non-profit so-called affordable housing developers including Affordable Housing Associates, Resources for Community Development, and the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation have teamed up with local and national organizations that are pushing for Rental Assistance Reform (RAR) legislation to be passed in the House and Senate, that is harmful to the poor.

The non-profit organizations are pushing for rental assistance reform (RAR) legislation that will result in fewer Section 8 housing choice vouchers for the poor, higher rents for public housing residents, and the acceleration of the privatization of conventional public housing projects into privatized mixed-income residential housing developments for higher income renters. Developments that are being promoted by so-called non-profit and for profit affordable housing developers who want to get their hands on public housing properties locally, and all across the nation.

In California alone, during 2011 when Governor Jerry Brown put more than 400 redevelopment agencies out of business, the so-called multi-billion dollar affordable housing industry began looking for other funding sources to continue it's empire building. The industry decided on grabbing as much conventional public housing property as possible, and wants to loot the Section 8 housing choice voucher program for more project-based vouchers.

The so-called affordable housing industry is pushing for RAR legislation to be passed in the House and Senate as soon as possible and it may be tucked away inside legislation heading for Congress as soon as December 13, 2013.

If lawmakers cave in to the pressures of the so-called affordable housing industry, the impact of RAR will result in more Section 8 housing choice vouchers being taken away from low-income renters in Oakland and all across the nation, so that they can be converted into project-based vouchers to fund so-called affordable housing projects for wealthy developers.

Currently under federal law, each Public Housing Authority (3,300 PHAs nation wide) is allowed to grab as much as 20% of the funding granted to them that is meant to be used for Section 8 housing choice vouchers for low-income renters, and convert the funding for use as project-based vouchers. Project-based vouchers that wealthy non-profit and for profit so-called affordable housing developers can use to fund their projects.

The so-called affordable housing industry wants RAR legislation to be passed that would allow all 3,300 PHAs to convert a whopping 25% of their Section 8 housing choice vouchers, into project-based vouchers for the wealthy so-called affordable housing developers and their projects. This is 5% more than what is currently allowed under federal law, and would be a great hardship on low-income Section 8 housing choice voucher holders.

RAR is a trojan horse of stealth legislation that was created under the guise of helping the poor, but actually promotes higher rents for poor people in public housing and the Section 8 housing choice voucher program, and scales back itemized deductions for medical and child care used by the poor for rent reductions in those programs.

If passed into legislation RAR would also set "flat rates" for higher income public housing tenants closer to market levels. In total the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that poor people in public housing and the Section 8 voucher program would pay about $1.75 billion more in rent over a five year period because of the loss of itemized deductions for medical and child care, in addition to the major rent increases that would be imposed on public housing tenants.

Another aspect of RAR if passed into law, it would change federal law so that higher income families would be assisted by the nation's federal housing assistance programs. Presently 75 percent of vouchers and 40 percent of project-based Section 8 and public housing units must be allocated to households with incomes at or below 30 percent of the local median income when they enter the program. RAR would instead require that those vouchers and units go to households with incomes at or below 30 percent of the local median or the federal poverty line, whichever is higher. By subsidizing the rents of higher income renters instead of low-income renters, the CBO estimates that the change would raise rent revenues and cut program costs by $1.12 billion over five years, because families admitted into the programs could afford somewhat higher rents.

RAR also supports the Rental Assistance Demonstration program (RAD) that accelerates the privatization of conventional public housing, and tests the conversion of public housing and Section 8 moderate rehabilitation units to project-based vouchers or Section 8 project-based rental assistance, and allows similar conversions of units from the Rent Supplement and Rental Assistance Payment programs.

On Sept. 24, 2013 in San Francisco, Poor Magazine, the San Francisco Bay View newspaper, Causa Justa/Just Cause, POWER and WRAP united for an emergency STOP THE ILLEGAL SELLING OF OUR HOUSING EQUITY, STOP THE RAD press conference, on the steps of City Hall in protest against RAD.

Mayor Ed Lee and the San Francisco Housing Authority want to privatize as many as 3,000 public housing units out of 6,054 public housing units, and hand over their day-to-day operations to some very eager non-profit housing developers. The so-called affordable housing developers are drooling at the thought of how many fortunes could be made by grabbing as many public housing units as possible for privatization, while displacing the poor with their major renovation projects that eventually will result in new gentrified housing projects for higher income, and middle class renters.

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan was in San Francisco on Sept. 24, to promote RAD while people protested against RAD at City Hall, and Donovan signed off on Mayor Ed Lee's scheme to privatize the public housing projects of San Francisco.

RAR also seeks to create more Moving-To-Work (MTW) demonstration Public Housing Authorities, and seeks to give some of the 33 existing MTWs more flexibility.

Authorized by Congress in 1996, the Moving To Work (MTW) demonstration program was created for a limited number of PHAs to try out new and different ways to save money, and find cheaper methods to deliver housing services. However, MTWs have morphed into agencies that are becoming notorious for abusing the funding from Congress. Funding that was meant to assist the poor.

During April 2012, HUD was under fire by the Government Accounting Office (GAO), that ridicules any assertions by HUD that an MTW's activities can be evaluated properly.

The GAO is an investigative arm of Congress with the power to examine matters related to the receipt and use of funding by Congress, and the GAO believes that MTWs are not regulated enough to properly evaluate how they are operating.

The latest continuing resolution that President Barack Obama signed that ended the government shutdown on October 16, only funds the federal government through January 15, 2014, and only extends the debt limit until February 7, 2014. Another government shutdown may occur again in a few months if the budget battles in Congress continue.   

The House and Senate also passed a measure that requires a conference committee of twenty-nine members to come up with a spending plan, and to return a budget agreement to both chambers by December 13, 2013. An agreement that would establish the budget for the federal government for FY 2014, including appropriate budgetary levels for FY 2015 through FY 2023.

It is up to the public at large to speak-up immediately and pressure the politicians to enact new legislation that will make the rich pay their fair share of taxes to do business in America, and to persuade the lawmakers to reverse the sequestration budget cuts that have shredded the nation's safety-net. 

Lynda Carson may be reached at tenantsrule@yahoo.com

“If you Believe”

By: Jose H. Villarreal

From my view the world erupts, a myriad of smiles, wrapped in loving arms and a batch of pups.

From my view my emotions spike, jubilant cheers in childhood games, or reflections from a balmy spring day bouncing off the shiny rims on my brand new bike.

From my view my heart bursts forth, my first kiss shoots an electric charge through previously dormant corridors of my being, a mere smile from my newfound sweetheart erupts an orchestra in my heart as melodious as a troop of musicians on course.

From my view the world has awakened, relieved of the fetters producing a grainy existence and all the depth of reality thrust into my cognition, fruition bore through until my very essence has been shaken.

If you have felt the unpaved road whence came the lonesome traveler, bathe in the glow of appreciation that arises from one destined to never be cavalier.

If you have felt delighted in the birth of a child, you need not search for the beauty of opportunity nor look to the parasitic as mild.

If you have felt the shackle cold feeling of injustice, you will forever lock anomie in the anthill rather than the anteroom of the hospice.

If you have felt the solitude of reason, take pleasure in that you embolden idea’s which add to them season.

Also remember my laughter, the chorus of a million children or the bird filled trees of a city park now seems trapped in my subconscious rafter.

Also remember my gaze, the botanical gardens of reflection or deep pools of concentration penetrating to the heart of reality as through a cobweb maze.

Also remember my thoughts, grappling ideas of theoretical warfare in suspended animation midframe for the interpreter to drink in as cool libation.

Also remember my message, words binding us in formation, commingling thought in momentary verse leaping off pages and thrust into the realm of ideas like hot oil leaping from the pan in search of a cool surface, a place where beliefs dwell and thrive.  

Editors Note: Jose is one of several power-FUL PNN Plantation prison correspondents involved in the Hunger Strike to end all solitary confinement and the in-human treatment of all of our incarcerated brothers and sisters.

It all started last month, outside the construction site at First and Mission where the new Transbay terminal and building is being built. I saw two police officers: one grabbing the closed end of a sleeping bag while the other one grabbed a man with his baton around the man’s neck, pulling him out of the sleeping bag. This is a violation of their protocol. Being that I made a treaty with my wife since I got married not to fight with police officers, I did not get involved in an altercation. The police officer just waved at me and said, “Pops, go right by.”

This police activity is a front to a formerly neutral zone between homeless people and police officers. For years, homeless people were allowed to sleep in the old Transbay terminal until it closed at 2 in the morning. That all stopped when a redevelopment agency got the property and began construction on the site. The new building on the  earthquake prone landfill site is not just a normal skyscraper; it will be a 1,000 foot glass and steel disaster. They had to go down 300 feet to hit bedrock with the piledriving in order to anchor the building. When finished, this will not only be a huge structure inside, but a palace for the rich in the basement as well. The high speed rail train that goes 200 miles an hour will have a station there, as one of the stops from San Francisco to Los Angeles. It will also serve caltrains and other bus companies for commuters to bring them back to their million dollar homes down the peninsula. The tower will be home to new businesses that will be nothing but headaches to the low-income residents of our city. As Google does not give any support to our city, I don’t expect that these people will support us either.

Senate bill 122 would keep exclusionary housing, which means one low income housing unit would be built for every five luxury units. Low income units are defined as 30% of area income medium, which in San Francisco is $100,000 per year. The below market housing units would be affordable to seniors on social security or anybody on SSI or on minimum wage. SB122 was passed by the state senate and assembly but vetoed by our governor, with no logical explanation.

The governor also dismantled all the redevelopment agencies that protected low income housing in the state of California.

Presently we are 200% oversupplied supplied with upper income housing, and 300% undersupplied on low income housing. Some people have to wait 10 years to be placed in low income housing (excluding SROs) in San Francisco.

The recent actions of the governor will only make this problem worse. Why do we have 30,000 vacant units, and only 10,000 homeless people? That’s enough to put one person in each house and leave 2/3 of the units vacant. In some countries, after a unit is vacant for two years, they give a property to citizens that want or need it. The Netherlands used this method of housing people until two years ago, but other countries still do it.

This problem is not only in San Francisco. Presently my friend in Seattle lives in a building that was recently sold. She was told by the new owners in a letter that her unit was already rented, so she faces the threat of eviction.  

We’ll keep having problems until somebody fixes the homeless issue and we a put a moratorium on high-end housing until all low income housing can be built in the United States, and corporations pay their fair share of taxes. Ed Lee made a deal with and Twitter, the new high tech corporation in the Soma district, so they do not have to pay property tax for ten years. Proposition 13 was a measure that the voters passed to save people’s housing, but the people that got the most benefit were corporations whose property taxes also didn’t go up. Prop 13 should be amended to exclude corporations, and corporate citizenship should be abolished.

Back in the day even before my time when you were a person of color or you were poor you couldn’t go to the doctor so one or two things happened. 1) A doctor out of the goodness of his heart would come to the house or 2) you had to do it yourself. My mother was born in the barn because my great-grandfather thought he could do what the doctor could do and delivered a 10lb. baby girl, the baby of course was fine but my grandmother was in a coma for three weeks behind that but she lived and is still kicking at 84 years of age.

So many people today don’t have insurance and no doctors are making house calls to my knowledge. Because of crimes in the inner city and vigilante cops no one is safe from these trigger-happy thugs. In the hood the authorities either don’t come at all when called or show up two deaths too late to save a person on the brink of death.  So now 50 plus years later we come to the conclusion “we gotta do it ourselves.”

PCM-Oakland (People’s Community Medics) is a group of concerned citizens in the neighborhood who are members of the Oscar Grant Committee got tired of seeing too many young Black and Brown mostly men but women too losing their lives because either the EMT’s would get there too late or not show up at all.

People’s Community Medics have been trained to do the basic things to save a life enough to get them to the hospital and in some cases have had to load the gun shot/stabbed victim into a car and drive them to the hospital. Thanks to this group of individuals, lives have been saved/spared. Somebody’s family didn’t have to lose a loved one thanks to someone giving a damn.

Sharena Thomas and Leslye Phillips founded PCM; it is a grassroots organization that teaches the basic emergency First Aid skills free of charge.

Are you aware that if the cops show up first that they can refuse a concerned citizen from aiding a person in distress? According to Leslye Phillips they can and in a lot of cases they do. One example of this is what happened in Anaheim, California when the cops at close range shot and killed an unarmed man and allowed him to bleed out. People wanted to help and tried but were viciously attacked by dogs to include children and other family members, so it is best to get there before the cops show up because it can be the difference between life and death.

Leslye also stated that 1 and 5 victims live if they beat the ambulance to the hospital, this being true of gun shot victims.

The People’s Community Medics don’t want to harbor their labor of love and concern for just East Oakland they would like to share the information and training they have received so that not only Oakland be spared but the whole Bay Area and beyond.

Because times are so hard and the economy is still not good, people can live even without insurance. Leslye and a few members of their group stopped by POOR Magazine to share this information and to let us know where they will be doing their next training session.

PCM only goes where they are invited so if you’re interested give them a call, they will come to schools, churches, community events and etc.

Itinerary/Upcoming Events

For upcoming events visit their website

Contact information:

People’s Community Medics

Email Address peoples communitymedics@gmail.com

Telephone number (510) 239-7720

Website www.peoplescommunitymedics.org