Story Archives

by Staff Writer

This call is open to all artists familiar with the experience of disability, especially artists from queer communities and/or communities of color. Submissions can include all types of artistic expression – performance art, video, spoken word, dance, storytelling, song, visual media, and words on page – whose core expresses sexuality, power, healing, embodiment and activism.

We define disability broadly to include physical impairments, sensory minorities, emotional disabilities, cognitive challenges, chronic/severe illness, and others whose bodies do not conform to our culture(s)’ idea of “normal” or “functional.”

Sins Invalid began in 2006 as a performance project that incubates and celebrates artists with disabilities, centralizing artists of color, queer and gender-variant artists as communities who have been historically marginalized. In 2007-2008, Sins Invalid grew to include an annual show, community-based performance workshops, political education workshops, and our growing presence online at www.sinsinvalid.org.

Submissions will be looked at for all Sins Invalid projects, including performances, workshops, online blog, and possible printed media and/or visual art shows.

Please submit a CD or DVD of your work (those submitting written work for publication can email or send a hard copy), along with a short personal statement about why you are interested in working with Sins Invalid, and how your work relates to issues of sexuality and disability.

Sins Invalid Submissions
c/o 1370 University Ave. #316
Berkeley, CA 94702

Please include a self-addressed stamped envelope if you want your work returned to you. We will contact you to confirm receipt of your work. If you do not have examples of your work on CD/DVD, please contact us for alternate formats.

Deadline for entries: Received by April 25, 2009.

Please feel free to email any questions to info@sinsinvalid.org or call (510) 689-7198.

by Staff Writer

The Trouble with Poverty

After Billy Collins’ “The Trouble with Poetry”

By the Bronx Bomber aka Oscar Bermeo

The trouble with poverty, I realized

as I walked from Orchard Beach one night—

icy Bronx gravel under my sandals,

a show of skyscraper lights in the sky—

the trouble with poverty is

that it encourages the promotion of more poverty,

more cousins crowding a one bedroom apartment,

more babies making babies

hopping out of their mothers into the jobforce.

And how will it ever end?

Unless the end of the month arrives

and we have compared what little we have

to what we have been promised,

and there is nothing left to do

but quietly close our overdrawn checkbooks

and sit with our hands folded over our stomachs.

Poverty fills me with joy

and I rise like a plastic bag in the wind.

Poverty fills me with sorrow

and I sink like a refrigerator in a landfill.

But mostly poverty fills me

with the urge to write about poverty,

to sit in the dark and wait for Con Edison

to appear at the tip of my stove.

And along with that, the longing to steal,

to break into the poverty of others

with privilege and a badge.

And what a trifling crew we are,

identity thieves, white collar criminals,

I thought to myself

as a sharp hunger swirled in my poetry

and I, an American poet, view the City

as if through a window

which is an image I stole directly

from Billy Collins—

to be perfectly white for a moment—

the visiting poet of the Bronx

whose book of troublesome poetry

nips and retreats from the corners

of my mind as I stop and enjoy

the streets of my borough.

by Teresa Molina/Voces de inmigrantes en resistencia

Scroll Down for English

Yo soy Teresa. Reportera de Voces de Inmigrantes en Resistencia en POOR Magazine. Yo soy Mujer inmigrante activista y madre de cinco hijos. Yo pienso que la guerra en Iraq es pura basura. Cualquiera persona puede ver que el ejercito de los Estados Unidos nunca lograra lo que quieren. Sangre se derama por todos lados en Iraq y a los pueblos pobres, los dejara mas pobre. Es tiempo de ponerle un alto por que yo como persona que vive en los Estados Unidos y madre de un hijo que me lo quieren quitar para entrenarlo a matar a personas pobres, estoy cansada de vivir en tiempo de guerra.

Estaba revisando el correo, y veo que hay una aplicacion de los Marines para mi hijo. “12 Semanas”… es lo que dice en el remitente, “Listo para ver lo que 12 semanas puede traer?” Sin abrir la carta ya puedo ver que va ser una mentira despues de mentira. Abro la carta y hay una foto de un joven y debajo de su cara dice, “Quien seras en 12 semanas?” Es un librito que detalla claramente lo que pasara en el entrenamiento de los Marines cada semana.

“Entrenamiento de Armas- Semana 1”
“Tecnicas de Combate-Semana 2”
“Sobrevivir en el Agua- Semana 4”
“Preparando para Combate-Semana 9”
”Honor, Corage, y Compromiso- Semana 10”

Mirando ese volante me asuste. Me asuste por que en el pasado yo recibi esa propaganda para mis hijos mayores y por mi ignorancia y las mentiras que nos dicen, yo empuje a mis hijos mayores a envolucrarse en esa maquina de muerte que es el ejercito. Despues que me involucre en mi comunidad y conoci a personas con informacion que no nos dicen en los medios de comuncaciones grandes de este pais, realize que yo estaba equivocada. Yo pensaba que ver a si mis hijos en ese uniforme de militar tan bonito, me entraria orgullo y seria feliz sabiendo que mis hijos son gente de provecho, sirviendo su pais, en una guerra justa. Pero e>>n realidad, no es una guerra justa, y no sabia que los estaba empujanda a una muerte segura.

Jose Gutierrez, 22, de Los Angeles, fue entre los primeros en morir en este guerra. Los papas de Jose murieron cuando el tenia 14 anos. Hizo el viaje de mas de 2,000 millas, saltando de tren en tren solo para llegar a ser detenido por la migra, y encarcelado en la Carcel Juvenil de Los Angeles. Este joven emigro a este pais por necesidad, una necesidad que pudo ser ayudada por el imperio de los Estados Unidos si no fuera una imperio global tan egoista que solo quiere quemar los recursos naturales de todo el mundo. Jose Gutierrez murio el 21 de Marzo, de 2003, nunca sabiendo la verdad de que el pais por el que el se sacrifico, nunca ayudo a su paiz de Guatemala a progresar, por lo menos al punto de tener comida para los pobres, tratamiento medico para los enfermos, y seguridad para sus padres que murieron cuando el solo tenia 14 anos.

Yo no quiero que sigan enganando mas jovenes. Yo no quiero que los Marines les llene la mente de mentiras a mis ninos. Yo no quiero que mi hijo sea el proximo Jose Gutierrez, que muera para un paiz que no lo quiere, y lo consideran un criminal illegal solo por hacer el ezfuerzo de sobrevivir al venir a este paiz.

Esto es prueba de las mentiras perpetradas en las familias pobres de color. Me enteré que una de las formas en que el gobierno federal recibe los nombres de nuestros hijos es a través de la legislación, No Child Left Behind-No Nino Dejado Atras. Mi editor, “Tiny” Lisa GrayGarcia de POOR Magazine llama esta legislación "No Child Left Alive- No Nino Dejado Atras- a causa de esta parte de la legislación y su impacto en las familias de color que viven en la pobreza.

Asi que, la respuesta a la pregunta que nos hacen los Marines, “Que seras en 12 semanas?”… Seras otra statistica de muerte en una guerra injusta.

Engles Sigue I am Teresa. I am a mother of 5 children . I am a Migrant and poverty scholar and reportera for Prensa POBRE and I believe that the war in Iraq is destroying this country. Blood is shed everywhere in Iraq, and poor communities are left further in poverty while the rich get richer.

I was checking the mail last week, and I see an application from the Marines with my son’s name on it. “12 Weeks”… is what it said on the cover, “Ready to see what 12 weeks can bring?” Without even opening the letter I could already tell that it is going to be one lie after another. I open up the envelope and there is a picture of a young man and under his face it says, “Who will you be in 12 weeks?” It’s a little pamphlet sent by the Marines that clearly details what will happen in the Marine boot camp each week.

“Week 1- Weapons Training”
“Week 2- Combat Techniques”
“Week 4- Surviving in Water”
“Week 9- Preparing for Combat”
“Week 10- Honor, Courage, Commitment”

Staring at this pamphlet I got scared. I was afraid because in the past I would receive this propaganda and give it to my older sons out of my ignorance and the lies that they fed me. I encouraged my older sons to become involved in that death machine that is the US military. After becoming involved in my community and meeting people that provided me information that was withheld from me by the major corporate media outlets, I realized that I was wrong. I thought that seeing my sons in that Marines uniform would make me happy and proud knowing that my sons were being all that they can be, serving their country, in a war with a just cause. But in reality, this isn’t a just war, and I didn’t know that I was pushing my sons into a coffin.

Jose Gutierrez, 22, from Los Angeles, was among the first to die in Iraq. Jose’s parents died when he was only 14 years old. He made the trip from Guatemala traveling more than 2,000 miles, jumping from train to train just to get to the US and be detained by ICE, and locked up in the Los Angeles Juvenile Detention Center. This brave young soul migrated to this country because of necessity, a fate that would’ve been different had the empire of the United States not been such a greedy, selfish global empire that doesn’t help any developing countries unless there are natural resources to be burned. Jose Gutierrez died March 21, 2003, never knowing the truth about the country he died for… The US never helped Guatemala progress, at least to the point of having sufficient food for the poor, adequate health care for the sick, and security for his parents that died when he was only 14 years old.

To further prove the lies perpetrated on poor families of color, I found out that one of the ways the federal government gets the names of our children is through the legislation, No Child Left Behind. My editor, Tiny GrayGarcia at POOR/PNN calls this No Child Left Alive-due to this part of the legislation and its impact on families of color living in poverty.

I don’t want my son to be the next Jose Gutierrez, to die for a country that doesn’t care about him, and considers him an illegal criminal just for making any effort possible to survive, even if it means migrating to the mouth of the beast (US).

So, the answer to the question made by the Marines, “Who will you be in 12 Weeks?”… You will be another statistic of death in an unjust war.

by Bruce Allison/PNN

As the crew at POOR Magazine are settling into our new digs, our scholars and techscholars were busy working to get the computers and office ready. This means that the elder, disabled, and poverty scholars have a space to do their work. This elder, disabled scholar has been keeping up my City Hall beat for PNN by attending three meetings a day to figure out the budget.

During one of my recent trips, I attended the Negative Decorations rally, where groups like SEIU 1021, Huckleberry House, The Coalition on the Homelessness, St. James Infirmary, Planning for Elders, and others were present, forming to create a 3,000 foot picket circle surrounding the south-side of San Francisco city hall, a line extending from Grove St. to the east and McAllistor to the west. With voices in unison, we cried, "No Justice, No Peace!" We then marched up the steps of City Hall, heading towards the supervisor's chambers chanting, "No Justice, No Peace!" We marched into the chambers and sat down, waiting until our item was called. They were voting on other things that day, like San Francisco General Hospital receiving a new backup genorator due to it going out every other month. In case of an earthquake the lack of this would be a hardship for the community. They had already spent the money retroactively without the supervisors permission. Due to the age of the genorator, the supervisors voted unanimously to do this.

Then our item came up, the Negative Decorations. A Negative Decoration is to take away the dead-wood that the mayor has kept in his budget, such as choeffers for fire capitains at a set salary of $100,000 annually, a minister that is managing nothing with a salary of $200,000 per year, or the cost of hosing the houseless at $100,000 for four people, along with countless others that total in 90 million dollars. The order by the President of the Board of Supervisors, David Chiu. Chiu said, "All people willing to speak, line up at the center aisle"

Me and three others lined up, including Bruce, the Director of Huckleberry House, and his allies. They talked about the budget, and how it will close a 40- year program for runaway youth. Then Bruce Allison, Elder Scholar, stood up and and projected his article written about the hosing of the houseless, and how the negative decorations would give back $100,000 under this program and be able to save the SRO Collaboratives.

After 300 people spoke in favor of the Negative Decoration, only 3 people spoke against it, one was Rob Black, the Chairman of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, claiming the city needs this business. Black was followed by a religious gentleman claiming that the prostitutes and lazy people should be cut off, pointing to senior homeless people, people with mental and emotional problems, women who have no alternative to feed their family other than prostitute, and people who are using illigal medicine to solve their problems. He was asked to leave after he had finished speaking, and I'm sure is still rambling on today. The final person to speak, the only republican left in San Francisco, said "this will raise taxes and businesses will close if you do this". This was after four hours of people speaking in favor of Negative Decorations.

When it was time for the Board of Supervisors to speak, Sean Elsbernd, through the monkey-wrench in the event by sending it back to the committee, delaying it by one month. The next day, I entered the Human Services Commission meeting to talk about a cut of one hundred people and agencies who assist in helping the homeless. This, along with comments from groups like Tenderloin Health, argued that they would no longer be able to serve the community. Tenderloin Health has 100 seats for people, wheras groups like Glide that receive the same amount of money only have 40. Due to these closures of shelters elderly and disabled homeless people will in the end cost more money because they will go the City General with aches and pains, as well as reports of loitering will increase because they will have nowhere to go.

A few days later, this pover scholar went to a private meeting with the Director of Adult Services, Anne Hinton, who used creative techniques, such as combining food services in the richer area to save meals in the poorer neighborhoods of the city. Due to federal law, all seniors in a group meal-site have to pay the same ($1.50), even though lots of them live in affluent areas. Hinton said, "I got bad news", She explained that she has to cancel the Share of Cost program that the city pays, allowing benefits for the homeless. I left the meeting.

The next meeting I went to, a few days later, was at the Department of Public Health. Dr. Marshall H. Katz said to the Health Commissioners, "you guys don't mean anything, all you are is a soundboard to the mayor. He makes the decisions in this city. What testimony these people will say, that don't mean anything either". Public comment began. 30 million dollars is going to buy new furniture for a building that will not be constructed for the next ten years. While doing that, they will have to close the Adult Day Health Center in Laguna-Honda that covers the entire western part of San Francisco. It will cost the city more money in the long run with having to put the Adults in homes and nursing facilities. As this poverty scholar got up and mentioned, "you can take a few less of your La-z Boys and open up this Adult Day Health Center".

If you are interested in seeing these changes through, write or call Sean Elsberned, Carmen Chu, or Michela Alioto-Pierce, the Supervisors of the western part of the city. Or you can email me, bruce@poormagazine.org. I will get back to you.

by Tiny aka Lisa Gray-Garcia/poverty scholar and daughter of Dee

"Don't look away, Jamal" From the shadows a tired and spirit-dead
adult lurked with a bowl of acid ready to burn into the eyes of an
unsuspecting orphan in the Mumbai of Slumdog Millionaire. "a Blind
child can make more money singing on the street," someone whispers
into the night sky. In a seamless filmic second Jamal and his older
brother Salim escape, tricking the omnipresent desperation,
destruction and violence of poverty that lurks at every turn
throughout their young lives. Throughout the whole movie, I
alternately cried and murmured my mama Dee's name, an orphan who like
she would say so many times, was like all orphan children across the
globe, unwanted, unseen, unloved and perhaps worst of all,
unprotected.

Iota by iota, I have lost my life, in faith,/ I've passed this night
dancing on coals,/ I blew away the sleep that was in my eyes,/ I
counted the stars till my finger burned.. lyrics from Jai Ho - one of the theme songs from Slumdog Millionaire

My mama, like Salim and Jamal and the small girl they befriend,
Latika, in the Oscar winning movie, Slumdog Millionaire, by Danny
Boyle was viewed as trash, a bother, or at best, something to profit
off of, by any adults who took the time to notice her, feed her or
shelter her. My mama was the illigimate, unwanted daughter of a
Boricua African immigrant and an Irish teenager. My mama was born in
Philadelphia.

"You should see that movie Tiny, homeless people here live in luxury
compared to those kids," a hairdresser acquaintance of mine said
referring to Slumdog Millionaire, making me cringe, Oh god no, I
thought, a movie that further creates the myth of "real" poverty
versus the experience of poor people in the US, who just need to get a
job and "pull themselves up by their bootstraps."

There are many different possible critiques of Slumdog Millionaire,
not the least of which is the increased fetishization of South Asian
peoples in poverty, with barely a U2 like, vague critique of poverty
and globalization. Playing to millions of people, who would rather
look to developing countries who have "real poverty" as it is easier,
cleaner, sexier, color-filled, simpler, rather than look in their own
backyard at the thousands of unseen, unheard , houseless and hungry
children and families in the US. Children like I was, at age 11, when
my poor abused mama was unable to silence the screams that lurked in
her head from her brutal childhood after the loss of her last job and
finally succumbed to those screams into complete disability, leaving
us in deep poverty and ongoing houselessness for the duration of my
childhood.

.... Taste it, taste it, this night is honey,/ Taste it, and keep it,/
It's the heart, the heart is the final limit..

One of PNN's former interns, himself born into wealth in
South Asia, and I discuss this movie constantly, his contention, it
presents a lie about modern day India, That a white man (Danny Boyle) colonized an art form already crafted (Bollywood) and made it from his lens. This is a very serious critique from POOR Magazine's perspective, we actively resist artistic and journalistic transubstantive errors made by default colonizers about cultures not their own. So this leaves me in conflict, because I also believe this movie depicts the reality
of struggling children in deep poverty, the desperation of survival by any means
necessary and the pimping of their poverty, by so-called "saviors" (a murderous "orphanage director" shown preying on the children) better than almost any movie i have ever seen. Then again, maybe I haven't seen enough South-Asian films.

So does this movie about poor folks, poor children, do what almost all
depictions of poor people do and have done since Charles Dickens stories about
poor folks in the ghettos of New York in turn of the century
Amerikkka. Through Dickens' Eurocentric, middle-class lens, he only saw
them as living in "squalor" "being dirty", and living in
"over-crowded" conditions and needing to be at best "cleaned-up" and
worst, "saved". In one stroke of his fountain pen, he stripped them
of their beauty, their power, their heroism, their sprit, language and
culture, resulting in the literary theft of their inherent agency,
and forever setting the narrative tone for other-ness documentations
of communities in poverty as well as the ever-popular to this day,
hygienic metaphors about "cleaning up poor folks".

To insure that more poverty scholars whose voices are intentionally silenced on all issues must less movie critiques get a chance to review this movie and weigh in on the message, POOR Magazine sponsored a movie night for our youth and adult poverty scholars in residence and our students in the Race, Poverty and Media Justice Institute that teaches folks living in poverty revolutionary media and organizing. We do a movie night, both corporate and non-corporate, several times a year as films are just another form of "media" to be read and critiqued by silenced communities. Almost across the board each of them were very impressed and overwhlemed with the movie and its message.

Our post-film discussion led me to conclude, this was a movie about what we at POOR Magazine call poverty
scholars and poverty scholarship, people whose scholarship is rooted
in their lived experience, rather than learned experience. Jamal's
brilliance, his knowledge, was rooted in lived experience. In a series
of flashbacks told to a police officer accusing him of "being a
slum-kid, not capable of that level of intelligence" was at once a
deft story-telling filmic trick but it also acted as a seamless way to
unfold not only Jamal's plight of love lost, his live-based knowledge
but also the undying hope of not only love but youth and humanity
itself.

Unlike Dickensian wrong-ness, Slumdog Millionaire was
truly a depiction of the power , sprit and strength of poor children
and families who continue to try, to work, to hope and to dream. In
fact it showed the subtleties of survival of underground economic
strategists, and ghetto scholars everywhere, who like my poor mama
managed to make it by any means necessary

No, I conclude, this is our movie , and the only problem is, other
folks, rich folks, who don't get the terror of endless struggle, the
unconditional and beautiful hope of very poor children, the work ethic
and desperation of poor workers, and poor families, shouldn't be
allowed to see it, Ever. No, we the very poor, need this movie to
remember who we are, the wealth of knowledge we hold, the deep
reality-based knowledge of Poverty Scholarship we all have, and to
remember that no matter how hard it gets, there is still hope, there
is still love and poetry and silliness, and beauty and above all, to
remember the connection between the struggle of people in poverty
across the globe.

.... Come, come my Life, under the canopy,/ Come under the blue
brocade sky!".. lyrics translated from one of the Oscar winning songs
in Slumdog Millionaire, Jai Ho, by A.R. Rahman

by Thornton Kimes/PNN

“The city! The city belongs to us!
We don’t need more budget cuts!”
--Dee Allen protest chant

The GA/PAES (San Francisco welfare) worker said, “We can talk to
everyone about you except the Unemployment people. That’s your
responsibility.” I felt like a tennis ball, bounced from a desk in
one building to one in another with a phone on it—and the Unemployment
voice on the other end of the line asked questions from I don’t know
how far away.

How did I get into this mess? Short answer: come close to that “You
can’t fire me, I quit!” knife-edged cliff, decide my last job lost
whatever charm was left even if HR wanted to do more than issue me a
pink slip. I resigned from Goodwill.

The long answer goes back to 1989, just before, during, and after the
earthquake in San Francisco—-though, in truth, it goes much farther
back. But TODAY is, among other things, my 4th time to be enrolled in
the city’s “Hellfare” fun-house hall of mirrors
more-than-3-ring-Catch-22 circus.

Today, we’re eyeballs deep in the economic crisis (Calgon, um, Obama
Take Me Awayyyyy...) that the high stakes capitalists of Wall Street
created and could no longer hide (sort of like those guys you see on
street corners playing that game with the pebble or the coin hidden
under one of three cups, the game that usually empties some of your
wallet—-THOSE guys are good at deception...).

The national and world economy is a ghost of itself, the California
economy was in trouble before the sub-prime mortgage filthy
mcnastiness raised its ugly head to the light of day-—and, yes,
yup-yup, San Francisco is in deep waters too.

The Board of Supervisors and the Mayor are faced with a $500
million-plus budget deficit, though it does seem like Gavin Newsom is
acting like a damsel in distress tied to the railroad tracks, wailing
about how there isn’t anything to be done but what must be done—-that
train is gonna shred some flesh from the bones no matter what!

Millions of dollars in cuts have already been made to health care and
other services to very low-income and no-income, barely-housed and
homeless citizens of San Francisco, some of them so stunning in the
scope of what they do to everyone like me that I’m fer sure havin’
that deer in the SUV-blinding-halogen-headlights feeling.

I’ve spent time in the homeless shelter now called Next Door (Geary
and Polk Streets) twice, both times for about 6 months. Next Door and
its country cousin MSC (Multi-Service Center) South, at 5th and Bryant
Streets, are, as you read this, no longer providing 6-month-long case
management beds to stabilize the transition from homeless to housed
for men and women who are healthy, have jobs or want to work. If the
next round of proposed cuts happen, there will be no shelter in San
Francisco providing anything you could call a “stabilizing influence”
for anyone in need.

So much for the “10 Year Plan To End Homelessness”. Feh! to “Care Not
Cash”! Newsome and the Supes say the budget is effed and you and you
and you are too. They don’t have the will, unless many San
Franciscans pressure them to cut other things from the budget—items
like the Opera, Symphony, Ballet, that have deep-pocketed patrons well
capable of covering whatever the city can’t, plus the true
administrative fat--some of it bulging from Newsome’s administrative
waist.

I’ve been to two meetings of the Human Services Commission and given
short public comments. The second one was attended by Newsome, who
told the Commission he hates cutting social service safety net
budgets-—but ya gotta do what ya gotta do! Badda bing.

Newsom almost had a shoe thrown at him, but the man behind me trying
to take off the symbolic missile he was wearing was stopped by someone
else demanding that he “show
some respect”.I started wondering if I will regret not shoeing Gavin
Newsom myself, since the man who did it to Bush has considerable
popular support in Iraq.

I went to the March 2nd, 2009 Town Hall Meeting at the Unitarian
Universalist Church at 1187 Franklin Street, just a few blocks from my
SRO hotel, to find out what some Supes in attendance had to say. The
public was going to have its say too and I wanted to deliver some of
my increasing displeasure, fear, and well, regrets about shoes.

There’s an old saying: not enough room to swing a dead cat. Even the
welfare social workers are getting to know what that means. My PAES
case manager recently said her department had been “decimated”.

Decimation, an old word and a nasty punishment—-the Roman Empire used
it, executing 1 in 10 people, be they ordinary citizens, slaves or
soldiers, for mutinies, riots, and other uprisings. City Hall workers
and welfare social workers were hacked and slashed with pink slips
before the Town Hall meeting, and I have a new case manager. Probably
no need to guess what happened to the “old” one.

There were other people there to speak as well, members of the staffs
of organizations helping those of us most in need of assistance.
Colleen Rivecca of the St. Anthony Foundation gave an overview of the
city budget process. She would have had more fun with the “monopoly
money” version that was recently enacted for the education of
interested folks at the Coalition On Homelessness. There were
certainly more than enough people sitting in the pews who would have
volunteered to be chunks of the budget.

Several other people spoke eloquently about what is happening now and
what fresh disasters may be soon transpire; Cindy Gyomi of the Hyde
Street Clinic provided a truly mind-bending example of the
merry-go-round Catch-22’s a low-income mental health system user will
experience, ultimately ending up homeless if nothing is done to at
least hold the line.

Of all the speakers, Melvina Hill, Recreation Director of Kezar
Stadium, got the most enthusiastic, loudest applause. She is well
loved by everyone who uses the stadium, including Special Olympics
community members who later spoke in her defense: the San Francisco
recreation and parks system is also being decidmated, the department
losing half its staff by Summer 2009 due to decisions made February
27th. I wondered if all this frustration and pain might contribute to
the rise of a new local political star on the horizon listening to Ms.
Hill and her supporters.

As for me, the Unemployment folks said no. Not enough room to swing a
dead cat, unless we remember and enforce what the Mistress of
Ceremonies, Tiny (Lisa Gray-Garcia) of Poor Magazine asked the
audience repeatedly: “Who’s budget is it?”

The answer: “Our budget!”

by Marlon Crump/PNN

"Are there any other parents that are in a similar situation like you are?" Paulette Brown was asked during a recent radio broadcast interview.

"Yes there are." Paulette replied. "But too many of them are too scared to fight the system because it is such a big entity. We are just one person, or a group of mothers and fathers who are out here saying that our children are being abused."

Unfortunately, the system is a mammoth with divisions, subdivisions, and counterparts aimed specifically towards "certain issues." No matter what injustice one may experience as a result of the system’s action, fear is immediately imminent when they fight back, by simply speaking out.

"Fostercare" is defined as "a system by which a certified, "stand-in parent(s)" cares for minor children or young people who have been "removed" (or displaced) from their birth parents or other custodial adults by state authority."

Throughout U.S history (and most likely in other countries) the foster care system, homes and agency affiliates have presented a destructive ticket for children, physically and psychologically. No matter the overwhelming number of complaints that discover the desks of an administrative supervisor, an oversight agency, and a public official for fostercare reform.............the destination for the complaints seems to arrive into wastebaskets at the side of their desks.

Former U.S President Bill Clinton signed a fostercare law, the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) in 1997, written by Dr. Cassie Statuto Bevan, which reduced the time children are allowed to remain in fostercare before being available for adoption. This law required state child welfare agencies to identify cases where "aggravated circumstances" make permanent separation of a child from the birth family the "best option" for the safety and well-being of the child.

One of the main components of ASFA is the imposition of stricter time limits on "reunification efforts."

Proponents of ASFA claimed that before the law was passed, the lack of this legislation was the reason it was common for children to be weakened in care for years with no permanent living situation identified. The children were often moved from placement to placement with no real plan for a permanent home.

Opponents of ASFA argued that the real reason children were weakened in foster care was that too many were "taken needlessly from their parents in the first place." Since ASFA did not address this, opponents said, it would not accomplish its goals, and would only delay a decline in the foster care population that should have occurred anyway "because of no reports on child abuse."

Ten years after ASFA became law, the reported number of children in foster care on any given day is ONLY about 7,000 fewer than when ASFA was passed. Children continue to be vulnerable and weakend in care, and to be moved from place to place.

Paulette Brown, an in home care provider a single mom of two daughters, (lost a son to violence in 2006) is desperately seeking justice against the inhumane treatments that the foster care system has/is subjecting towards children who are taken away, particularly one of its primary affiliates being the Child Protective Services agency.(C.P.S)

Paulette appeared at POOR Magazine’s very first POOR Community Newsroom, on February 3rd since its forced relocation/gentrified move from the S.F Grant Building, in December of 2008. Unfortunately, inhumane treatments, tortures, rapes, abuses, etc, etc are not uncommon to us.

Paulette's niece, while she was still an infant, has been tortured, tormented, and traumatized into the fostercare system until her release into her aunt's custody, at three years old. Paulette's half-sister's drug use was the motivation for her niece to be taken by the fostercare system. However, their job was not to traumatize her.......... by failing to protect her.

More and more children aren't treated much differently than the children forced into illegal sex slave operations that law enforcements soundly swears to shut down, and the "terrorist detainees" held in the prisons of U.S Guatanomo Bay. Like so, President Obama has recently ordered the closing of Guatanomo Bay, but not before these detainess will have extreme difficulty adjusting to life, as a result of "interrogation techniques" given to them during their imprisonments.

Such stories of the fostercare system and C.P.S have motivated "Tiny" Lisa Gray-Garcia, and her mom, co-founder, the late great "Mama" Dee Gray to establish the CourtWatch division of POOR from the very beginning of POOR. The late great "Mama" Dee Gray, herself, was tortured for many years in the fostercare system.

On February 9th, 2009 there were several issues that were raised on the radio broadcast, 89.1 KPOO before Miss Brown was interviewed, such as the D.T.V transition (Digital Television transition was delayed until June 12th, by the urging of new U.S President Barack Obama to Congress.) and the ongoing "budget crisis" that continues to infest the lives of poor working families, and people in poverty, today.

Paulette’s purpose was to inform the world of the treatments that her niece had experienced (from the time she was an infant until three), and the hassles from San Francisco city agencies of the fostercare system she's been corruptively channeled through, for every action she took to prevent these acts from continuing.

It was reported on 89.1 KPOO that more hassles will increase with the San Francisco Department of Social Services, and other S.F city agencies due to the" budget crisis" here in the State of California. When I listened, I asked my own self, "Does it really take more or less money and/or an economic stimulus package for an overseer and or a governmental authority official to take these ongoing complaints more seriously?"

Exactly who is going to provide a "Bailout Plan" to innocent children who are faultlessly funneled into the fostercare system, into a world existing of disgusting, sickening, and inhumane treatments from foster parents, resulting in children growing up having difficulty adjusting to life? Are children going to continue being subjected to the fostercare sytem as political prostitutes?

"They never wrote a report, they just gave her back to me with all the issues she has had to deal with. I’m supposed to be the mother, the father, the police officer, the therapist, lawyer, and I can’t do it all." Paulette explained.

"They need to go ahead and report this child abuse, but they are passing the buck onto me and telling ME to report it when she’s a ward of court. She’s still under the foster care system. THEY are supposed to protect her, THEY are supposed to report this, not me."

Paulette has presented numerous reports and complaints to her niece’s therapist, her social worker, and her attorney regarding the wicked treatments her niece was receiving, while she was in the fostercare system. Her niece has given them letters telling them what happened to her, but no action has been taken.

Paulette presented her concerns of the aftermath mental well-being of her niece. "Here I am dealing with all these issues that she is having. She's doing more things now, than when she left me, like fighting with people, depression, and self-medication. I need help and the fostercare system is not helping."

Though Paulette presented, and voiced her concerns, only one can ponder the thought of how can the fostercare system help when they're practically contributing to the problem from its inability of intervention(s) from prevention(s) by not even reporting it?

Paulette's niece has been in three fostercare homes, one where she was molested, the other where she was raped, and the other where she was physically and verbally abused. In 1996 when her niece was three, she stayed with her foster mother who's son stayed there as well..............while he was on parole for rape! Upon learning this, Paulette acted quickly to have her niece removed from that household.

(Placing children into fostercare homes where the parents have a criminal history is, or the parent is not given a background check, is not uncommon. It as if they are thrown into a jail cell with a dangerous inmate.)

After an estimated wait time of one year, her niece was finally given to her. She then took her niece to San Francisco General Hospital to be examined. When her niece was examined, it was revealed that her niece's vaginal area was severely penetrated.

When Paulette asked the doctors what was wrong with her vaginal area, she was told by by two doctors that her niece was raped. Her area was bleeding alot.

Paulette confronted the foster mother regarding this, and the foster mother responded "Oh that's just a rash." Paulette knew this was a lie, given the fact that she has two children of her own, and knows what a real rash lookes like. A second incident occurred when Paulette visited her niece and changed her diaper, only to discover that her vaginal area was bleeding out of control.

After Paulette expressed her outrage of this horrible act being done to her niece, the foster mother stopped Paulette from having any more visits.

In 2001, Paulette's niece was violently attacked by her own therapist when she was at the Edgewood Center for Families and Children. A civil action was filed by Paulette, where she prevailed on the action with a settlement. Then-San Francisco City Attorney Robert Evans informed a San Francisco judge that the S.F Department of Social Services neglected Paulette's niece's needs.

Paulette called the ombudsman of San Francisco to fire the therapist, the social worker, and the attorney of her niece, James Donnelly, due to the fact that they wasn't doing their jobs. However, Paulette explained during her radio broadcast interview that NO action was really taken by the ombudsman.

At one point, there was a critical service called Family Mosaic, that was threatened to be cut. Paulette relentlessly fought to prevent this service from being cut, especially since she was already having the world on her shoulders, and cutting a vital service for her niece was just doing WAY too much. Fortunately, this service remained intact.

There was some discussion during the radio broadcast that current S.F Mayor Gavin Newsom hires people at the S.F Department of Social Services, which means that complaints of these abuses fall directly under his jurisdiction.

On numerous occassions, Paulette has appealed and urged Newsom to launch an investigation into these incidents. Unfortunately, she has received the same hassles, runarounds, and disconcerns his aides have given her, just like the fostercare system.

Paulette was saddened by this attitude and inaction by Newsom, given the fact that she supported him during his first 2003 mayoral run against his opponent, Matt Gonzalez, whom he successfully defeated. She even has a huge picture portrait of him featured with her and her children after his victory, as the new S.F Mayor.

Before Newsom, Paulette appealed to former S.F Mayor, Willie Brown and his aides for help, but recieved the same treatments.

"I supported him and I just wanted him (Newsom) to look into these incidents of children being abused in the fostercare system." Paulette said, softly and sadly. She's also appealed to the S.F Board of Supervisors, and other prominent city officals to put an end to the violence in the communities of color, following the death of her son who was killed on August 14th, 2006. His killers are yet to be caught, or even sought.

Just three years ago, Paulette's niece was sexually molested by staff members of the Boys and Girl's Club.

Despite the disregard of documents that validate all of Paulette's complaints, the lack of interventions by oversight agenicies, refusals of representations from disconcerned lawyers due to intimidations, the overwhelming fear of retaliation from parents (especially ones previously involved with the penal system),and the financial security jeapordization of their jobs; Paulette continues to organize her efforts to bring awareness and a movement against the savagery of the fostercare system.

"You're doing too much" are the discouraging remarks Paulette's received. She's been asked why is she fighting so hard. "She's my niece, I love her and we have the same blood, so don't ASK me why I am fighting so hard!" Paulette's fiery response to such a foolish question.

Paulette is currently her niece's relative care giver, where she only has partial custody, since her niece is still a ward of court. Paulette has been denied adoption of her niece due to her niece needing "more therapy" which is alleged by the Department of Human Services. Paulette contends that it is a lame excuse to conceal the possibilty of their retaliation towards her for exposing their corruption.

Paulette swears that her niece has never even gotten effective therapy services for her niece's needs. Every time Paulette tried to place her niece in a therapy service that could've effectively treated her niece's needs, she was always removed from that service by the S.F Department of Human Services.

Nine months before Paulette received partial custody of her niece, she was informed by her niece that her foster parents were physicallly and verbally abusing her. Her niece was choked, beaten, and had her glasses broken. Paulette reported these incidents to the social worker, the therapist, and the lawyer, but just like the other times, these three did nothing to stop it.

Her niece was so frightend that she slept at night with a razor blade her side.

On December 21st, 2008, her niece was violently choked, and dragged down the stairs. The mother did the dragging, while the father watched. This was the absolute final straw for Paulette. On December 22nd, 2008, Paulette's niece was partially placed back into her custody by the court.

Unfortunately, her niece was not out of the woods. Her niece's social worker of approximately seven years, Aunca Bujes, breached confidentiality by revealing to the foster parents that Paulette had reported the abuse. Both Paulette and her niece immediately started receiving threats as a result. Her niece received so many of them on her cell phone, that Paulette had to change her number.

"They put her in the same room WITH THE ABUSERS, asking her what happend. You don't put a CHILD in the SAME room with the abusers and try to get information out of that child. She is not going to tell you any and everything!" What they told Paulette was that her niece only said that "they grabbed just her arm." There was more to it than that, but they have not made a report."

Before the murder of her seventeen year old son on August 14th, 2006, Paulette was even been threatend by C.P.S regarding her OWN two children, in addition with her niece; should she continue with her fight against the fostercare system.

"It'll be a cold day in HELL before I let that happen!" Paulette responded, furiously.

Paulette Brown is seeking the help of other parents who've had similar experiences like she's had with the fostercare system to organize a massive movement to hold it accountable for its lack of interventions and its failures to protect children. She can be reached by her email: serina1994@aol.com

Like Paulette, every parent and sympathizer must organize to hold the entire fostercare system accountable for its lack of prevention to protect the lives of children.

To C.P.S (Child Profit Service) your kids will soon become their kids and somebody else's kids too.

And once they get your kids in their hands and out of yours

They meaning C.P.S and the court system will make it hard for you to get them back anytime soon.

When C.P.S (Child Profit Service) need money they have their own therapist at the family service agency 1010 gough.

That they use to help kidnap the children through lies that they coach the child to tell on their parents. ...
Excerpt from the poem, "When Child Profit Service come to your house" written by POOR Press author, poverty scholar, and poet, Byron Gafford.

by JewnBug, Media facilitator: Wendy Fong

Today is a new day. Poor skies lead to rainy days, but poor skies say goodbye lead to better days sometime. better days sometime in the neighborhood welfareQueen in tha house! PoMama, poverty scholar gonna break it down how indigenous families mutated to inter-dependency in this blood stained land of America how the childcare system needed funding instead built prisons destroying our families but with thumbs up votes to Obama's economic plan there will be increased money for 2009 no more rainy days for now…

I had the privilege to facilitate this column interview with Jewnbug, co-founder of the F.A.M.I.L.Y. Project, founder and executive director of A.R.T. (Artistikal Revolutionary Teaching), Parent Voices (grassroots, state-wide with 18 chapters in California), a Po'Poet, poverty scholar, welfareQueen, POOR Press author, and PoMama columnist, about child care in California. Her voice was vibrant and fierce, a womyn beating to a thousand of her own drums. I was eager to hear about the good news and future plans in childcare.

When President Obama signed the Economic Recovery and Investment Act for 2009, it granted $2 billion for federal childcare funding. For the past 7-8 years the federal government has not increased funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a program designed to support families by increasing quality, availability, and affordability for childcare. This has been the largest increase in federal aid since Washington began to spend money on education after World War II. California is populated with the most children compared to all fifty states. From this act, the state will get approximately 12 percent of the $2 billion funding. When broken down, about 75% will go towards certificates or vouchers, allowing more availability for children and parents to selectively access childcare, 4% towards improving quality care such as teacher training, and 21% towards licensing. The plan will also increase funding for the Headstart Program over the next two years, which is the largest federal source for childcare funding for children under five years old.

Today over 200,000 children are waiting for childcare on the Centralized Eligibility List with no guarantee of childcare. Yet, what are parents and children expected to do in the meantime? “Basically parents are getting penalized by not fulfilling their welfare requirements of finding a job and fulfilling a certain income bracket,” says Jewnbug. However, when the additional funding arrives, part of it will help alleviate waiting, helping families find jobs, and create new childcare jobs.

However, although this is good news, Jewnbug says she is also challenging the system from its foundation, asking how did childcare get so neglected in the first place? How did America suffer from such a deficit for infants, toddlers, and children? First, we have to re-examine the idea of family, the idea of childcare, and how the indigenous childcare model has changed to a corporate, interdependent model in America. Indigenous childcare was where everyone used to take care of their own children, everyone learned together “for the people by the people.” All ages learn together, playing together in a community of family and eldership across multiple generations.

In the United State, when a child reaches 6 months, or even 3 months old, the mother is expected to go back to work. “This is corporate child abuse,” says Jewnbug, “it promotes a separation of mother and child. Being a parent as a job is considered by Calworks as being below the poverty line. Why are parents not paid for taking care of their own children?” She references Dr. Wade Nobles, a tenured professor in Black Studies at San Francisco State University, who talks about how Western or Euro-centric ideology is centered on individuality, which promotes this separation by of parent and child. He states individuation argues that “you’ve got to break free from your family... that you have no independent agency because in their minds you are submitting to the thinking of or the feelings of or the ideas of these other individuals.” It is a political idea that is reinforced by capitalism, where it thrives on the exploitation of people to maximize profits.

How does our childcare system relate to the prison industrial complex? “It was a set up,” says Jewnbug, “Did you know that they project how many beds to build in prison based on the 3rd grade literacy?”

Jewnbug is also working on a few key things she hopes to see occur during the allocation of these funds. One key thing is that the governor doesn’t steal the money from the childcare funds. If the funds are not spent over the next two years, it will automatically roll over into the next fiscal year making it susceptible for the governor to grab it. Thus in order to prevent rollover funds, they are attempting to create child care vouchers or a Rainy Day Account, also known as reserve accounts to save funds during economic recession. Also that the state requires child care facilities to get inspected annually, compared to every five years as they do presently. Federal money will be increasing the CCDBG, which was funded for 8 years. That money needs to trickle down to 12%. That funding combined with the other funding can use childcare vouchers for private child cares-- anything of their choice.

by Chloe Auletta-Young/Race, Poverty Media Justice Institute Intern at POOR Magazine

They used to tell me/I was building a dream/ And so I followed the mob/ When there was earth to plow/ Or guns to bear/ I was always there/ Right on the job.

“Given the subject matter of the exhibition, we have waived the entrance fee,” said the admissions attendant at the California Historical Society in San Francisco. My friend, and POOR Staff Writer, migrant and poverty scholar, Muteado, and I looked at one another and smiled. We had just spent a good ten minutes complaining about the inaccessibility of “advocacy” art events, the hypocrisy of it all, the high price of entrance, the brie and cabernet passed around in front of emaciated portraits of African children. I applaud “From Hobos to Street People” for making it free to the public, and for much more.
The space is big and light, would-be conservative if it weren’t for the art on the walls, the reality in the air. The messages surrounded me and everywhere I turned, in every nook and cranny, I couldn’t escape the significance. This is not an exhibit you critique, you do not remark on the arrangement or the paint color. You learn, you listen, and you walk away with the knowledge that this is truth you cannot ignore. I’m glad there is some sense of catering to the uppity ups of society, because they will come in, and they will be told, and they will know, never will they be able to say that they don’t.

by Por Teresa Molina/Voces de Inmigrantes en resistencia/PNN

For English Scroll Down:

“Janet Napolitano, basta el apoyo al razista sheriff Joe Arpaio.” Sherriff Joe Arpaio del condado Maricopa, Arizona, marcho 200 inmigrantes encadenados de un centro de detencion hasta el desierto, adonde los espera una pueblo de campana rodeada por alambre electrico adonde no les daran atencion medica y los trabajaran como esclavos. No mas leer esto nos debe entrar mucho temor, hasta escalo frio. Estamos en el ciglo 21 y todavia pueden tratar a seres humanos como los trataban en anos de esclavitud? Estas persona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, y sus aliados, si se les puede llamar personas, no tienen Corazon. Son como unos desalmados sin entranas. Yo me pregunto, “Quien es mas culpable? El que hace esta crueldad? O, el que permite que estas crueldades les pasen a otros seres humanos?”

Janet Napolitano, la Jefa de Homeland Security-Seguridad de La Patria, permite que estos abusos pasen por que el departamento de Homeland Security consideran los inmigrantes indocumentados como terroristas. Yo soy Teresa, reportera de Prensa Pobre, Mujer inmigrante, Madre de 5 hijos, y activista para cambio en mi comunidad. Yo ni sabia que nos consideraban terroristas. Para mi, un terrorista es alguien que ataka otro pais… alguien que pone bombas, o hecha gas venenoso en la atmosfera. Pero, yo, ahorra soy considerada terrorista? Esto es una porqueria! Yo trabajo por menos del sueldo minimo, pago impuestos a este gobierno razista que me considera terrorista, yo, y personas como yo, mi pueblo, mi comunidad, hacemos este pais mas ricos. Es como llamar a los esclavos de un pais los terroristas. Que basura!

Antes de que este sheriff Joe Arpaio, mostraba su poder y crueldad contra terroristas, se lo hacia a gente pobre, sin hogar. Desde 1999, el sheriff Joe Arpaio a penalizado delitos menores con el encarcelamiento en la prision, con el proposito de empezar un programa adonde pondria a los encarcelados en cadenas, Chain Gangs- como le llaman en ingles, a trabajar como esclavos por 10 horas al dia en el desierto de Arizona adonde la temperatura sube hasta 120 grados. Que crueldad! Ni animales merecen o aguantan esta tortura. Como es permitido que un hombre tan loco, cruel, razista, clasista, sin Corazon ni sentimientos le den una responsibilidad como decidir como el condado de Maricopa castiga a los presos? Como permitimos esto? En este pais adonde les ensenan a nuestros ninos historias de libertad, igualdad, y justicia Americana. Esto no es justicia, esto no es libertad, esto no es igualdad. El sheriff Joe Arpaio representa todo lo contrario de lo que es ser Americano. Si alguien merece ser considerado terrorista, es el sheriff Joe Arpaio.

“Tiny” Lisa Gray Garcia comenta sobre la importancia de luchar contra los razistas locos en poder que usan su poder para mal: “La policia y los sheriffs siempre hacen pruebas de sus tacticas fascistas de tortura en personas de color, inmigrantes, y gente pobre. Por eso es muy importante luchar contra estos terroristas desde el empiezo, para que sus ideas, razismo, y tacticas de tortura no crezcan, ni se contagian.” POOR Magazine a estado en una lucha contra el sheriff Joe Arpaio desde que el empezo haciendo estas atrocedades contra los pobres en 1999.

Engles Sigue

...................

“Janet Napolitano, Stop supporting the racist sheriff Joe Arpaio!” Sherriff Joe Arpaio from Maricopa county, Arizona, made 200 shackled immigrants march from a detention center in the city all the way out to a tent prison surrounded by electric barbwire in the desert. Here, they are being treated like animals, working on a chain gang up to ten hours a day and are generally denied basic medical needs. Just reading this should make us afraid, even shiver. We are in the 21st century and racists can still legally treat other human beings worst than animals? These people, Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his cronies, are not humans, they have no hearts. They are like evil zombies walking around without souls. I ask myself, “Who is more to blame? He who commits this cruelty or the people that let these atrocities be committed against other human beings?”

Janet Napolitano, the Head of Homeland Security, permits this abusive action to happen because according to the department of Homeland Security, “illegal immigrants” are considered terrorists. I am Teresa, reportera for POOR Magazine, migrant mother of five children, and activist for change in my community. I was unaware that I am considered a terrorist. For me, a terrorist is someone who attacks another country… someone who bombs busy city buses, or unleashes deadly gas into the atmosphere, but now I am considered a terrorist? This is bull$#!+! I work for less than the minimum wage, I pay taxes to this racist government that calls me a terrorist. My labor and the labor of those in my community, make this country rich… off of our cheap labor. Calling undocumented immigrants terrorists is like calling slaves terrorists. Ridiculous!

Before this sheriff Joe Arpaio demonstrated his “power and strength” by committing cruel acts against us immigrants--pardon me “terrorists”--he would bully poor folks, homeless people, and anyone he could. Since 1999, sheriff Joe Arpaio has penalized misdemeanors with felony prison time, with the intention of putting these people incarcerated for crimes of poverty into chain gangs, to work like slaves for up to ten hours at a time in the Arizona desert where the temperature rises up to 120 degrees. This is cruelty. Animals don’t even deserve to be tortured this way. How is it that this racist, crazy, classist, heartless, @$$hole is responsible for deciding how the county of Maricopa punishes those persons encarcerated? How do we permit this? In this country where we teach our kids an American history of liberty, equality, and justice. This is not justice, nor liberty, nor equality. Sheriff Joe Arpaio represents the exact opposite of the American ideals this country is found upon. If someone deserves to be called a terrorist, it is sheriff Joe Arpaio.

“Tiny” aka Lisa Gray-Garcia comments on the importance of fighting racism and evil men in power: “The Po-Lice and sheriffs always test out their fascist tactics of torture on people of color, migrants, and poor folks. That is why it is very important to fight against these injustices from the start, so that their racist ideas and fascist torture tactics don’t spread.” POOR Magazine has been fighting sheriff Joe Arpaio since he first came on the scene perpetuating crimes against poor folks in 1999.