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pstrongA Couple of Low-Income Cats Talk Back!/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Dee/p pYes, Hands thought if only he could have said, "You just kinda wasted my precious time," to that relationship he endured many years ago. Yes, Hands was in love, deeply in love a long time ago, in a different country. Unfortunately, this beloved girlfriend broke up with Hands for stupid reasons, Hands and Lester said. /p pYou see, Hands has a habit of crossing his paws when he sleeps and that girlfriend couldn’t stand it. She told Hands to stop but he couldn’t help himself. But when Hands started chewing in such a way so that his whiskers would get stuck in his mouth, the girlfriend really got disgusted and told Hands that was it, she did not want to see him anymore. At least that’s how uHands’ version/u of the story goes./p pAt the time Hands knew this girl he was a travel agent in Hawaii, in another one of his nine lives. This girl’s name was Aulii, which means chief in Hawaiian, and true to her name she did like to lead and was a bit bossy. Also, she was very proud of her Hawaiian heritage. Hands believed he was doing Hawaii a favor by encouraging tourism, believing that tourism promotes Hawaiian culture./p pOf course, because Hands didn’t have a clue about what it meant to be an indigenous person, he requested that Aulii do the hula for him all the time. Now the hula is an ancient form of dance with deep and complex religious meaning and to perform it for tourists, which of course Hands was, was a form of cultural prostitution. Hawaiian women doing the hula are marketed on posters from Paris to Tokyo, promising an unfettered primitive sexuality. Actually, that was the main reason Hands wanted to come to Hawaii. Hands had seen those posters, and in fact to this day still has one on the wall near his cat box./p pHands couldn’t understand why this woman talked the way she did- about Captain Cook and how beautiful the life of the indigenous Hawaiian people had been before the diseases that the explorers had brought to Hawaii, which had decimated her people. All Hands cared about was being on the beach in Waikiki in the moonlight with Aulii, watching the locals like Don Ho and the local dance troupe called the Honolulu Fire Dancers Club dancing with fire./p pAulii did not appreciate something else Hands loved to do, which was to gather his buddies around him at the beach and sing his favorite Hawaiian song to Aulii: /p pIt’s not the island fairbr /br / That is calling to mebr /br / It’s not the balmy airbr /br / Or the tropical seabr /br / It’s just a little brown girlbr /br / In a little grass skirtbr /br / In a little grass shackbr /br / In Hawaii.br //p pOne moonlight Waikiki night, after singing to Aulii, Hands told her they could get married right away if Aulii got a job with the hula dancers on the stage and made a lot of money so that she could support Hands when he gave up his job as a travel agent and opened a mumu store in Waikiki beach. When Aulii heard this she looked angrily at Hands for a full minute, then turned and left the room, never to be seen again./p pHands and Lester still to this day cannot understand why this beautiful brown girl left Hands for good. How could she be so critical of him just because he slept with his paws crossed and got a few crumbs on his whiskers when he ate too fast?/p p/p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p

pstrongLocal government in Austin, Texas are proposing an ordinance to harass homeless folks./strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/332/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby HoustonChronicle.com, courtesy of Homeless Peoples Network/p p /ppbAUSTIN/b -- Along the street nicknamed "The Drag," across from The University of Texas, the homeless have mingled with students for years.br / br / /ppBut that could change if the Austin City Council approves a measure thatbr / would ban sitting or lying on sidewalks downtown or along the Drag.br / br / /ppCouncil members are considering the proposed ordinance that would make it abr / Class C misdemeanor, punishable by a $500 fine.br / br / /ppThe proposed ordinance is modeled on a Seattle ordinance upheld inbr / Washington state court and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.br / br / /ppSome council members say they support the plan, as long as it is notbr / enforced before the city's temporary men's shelter and permanent women'sbr / shelter open this summer and fall.br / br / /pp"I think if everything is in place, it's appropriate," said Council Memberbr / Beverly Griffith./p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p

pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/333/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Nancy Muldoon/p pI recently got a parent survey in the mail from the San Francisco Unified School district. My child attends a public school and is currently in the fourth grade./p pMy daughter is biracial. She is Irish-American and African American. The survey in the mail requires me to select one box only under the "ethnicity"br / category./p pThe categories are as follows: African-American, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Latino, Native-American, Other Non-White, Other White, and Decline to State. /p pLet's consider the last two for a moment. /p p"Other White?" What the hell is Other White? Will someone please explain this to me? There is no "Caucasian" or "White" box to check. Just "Other White."/p pI am Irish-American and I don't consider myself as "Other White." But the survey is about my child's ethnicity, not mine. /p pOn principle, I will not choose one box to make some bureaucrat happy.br / I will not check one box to make it easier for the Census Bureau. Why should I?br / In essence my child is being told that she must pledge allegiance to one race or the other. It's the governments "divide and conquer" routine and it's not even clever./p pIf I choose the "Decline to State" box, it makes me seem obstinate and unwillingbr / to play by the rules. When the fact of the matter is I am not declining to state anything. It is the survey that is declining parents the opportunity to choose more than one box. Declining to State also has a 5th Amendment mentality to it. As in: "I decline to state on grounds that whatever I say may incriminate me or my child."/p pWho are these bureaucrats who make up these pointless surveys? And, how much money are they being paid? Inquiring minds like mine really want to know. /p pAt this point I don't even know if I will actually complete the survey and mail it in.br / Maybe I should write a scathing letter to the San Francisco Unified School District asking them what purpose does the survey serve? I also wonder if they will send me a well-worded form letter saying that they "Decline to State."br / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p

pstrong a letter to the editor at PNN/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/334/photo_1_feature.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Cynthia Cravens /p pDear Poor News Network,/p pI plan to return my check for my tax return to Mr. Bush with a notebr / saying, "No thanks. I don't need this money that badly. You took me forbr / a special interest, but you were wrong. I'm an American citizen and Ibr / will not be bought. This money should have been spent by my governmentbr / to ensure that all Americans have access to medical care; to nourishbr / basic, disinterested research into energy generation; to promote abr / decent standard of living and educational opportunities for America'sbr / poor and middle class; and, most importantly, to provide for publicbr / financing of federal elections so that our institutions of governmentbr / will, once again, be respected."/p pI will send copies of this letter to the New York Times, the Sanbr / Francisco Chronicle, my US Senators and Representatives, and the IRS./p pRegards,/p pCynthia Cravens /p p*****************************************/p pbi Another letter to the Bush Administration/i/b/p pChaos In California- An open Letter to the Bush Administration br / br /From Dee Gray/p pDear W: /p pSince you have been in office, your administration has done nothing but cause chaos in our country. “Unite the Country,” was that not your slogan? You have done more to divide this country than any other administration I have known. You are attempting to isolate California with your assaults, as if we are not a part of the United States! Subtle messages in the press like “California is taking all your energy!” from Republican administrations in other states further your crusade to alienate California. /p pWhat a difference in the United States between now and a few months ago, when Clinton was president. Chaos reigns now. This chaos of rolling blackouts, stock market dips and confusion, disinformation about the economy and jobs. And the worst of it, of course, is in California./p pPerhaps California to you is just too powerful a place, filled with terrible people you and your right wingers disdain, like Hollywood whores and pimps, hippies, protesters, queers, potheads, leftist talk show hosts, and last but not least, Democrats. What was it you used to call them, Commie Pinko Queers? /p pIf you’ve read the recent census report, you should know that California is no longer “White.” Latinos are now outnumbering all other ethnic groups in California. You claim to be so caring of Latinos- or are those just Latinos in Texas? Do they have some unique quality that California Latinos do not possess? Perhaps when it comes to the vote?/p pThe energy crisis exploded when you took office. Your idea is to force California to spend all of its money on energy, and force Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to relocate or go out of business. You hope is to weaken California even more than the rest of the country, force us to our knees until we cry “uncle” and beg you to drill for oil in Alaska and along the California coast. You weaken EPA regulations for air pollution but you do nothing to develop and promote alternative and renewable energies. You negotiate with the Arabs to produce less oil so that you can further put the squeeze on this country to destroy wildlife habitats and the natural beauty of these environments. Why should you have interest in wildlife? Your interest is in keeping us dependent on oil. That’s where the money is!/p pMr. Cheney and the oil interests have used California as a guinea pig. With such a successful energy crisis, why would they stop now? Think of the profit that may be gained by putting the same pressure on the rest of the country, as Mr. Cheney has predicted! You, Dick, and your oil buddies must be salivating at this prospect. You needn’t be bothered with Arab nations when you exploit this crisis and expand oil drilling here at home. You can raise and lower prices of energy at will in the true spirit of capitalism, justified by Cheney’s staggeringly ridiculous claim that we are not technologically advanced enough to utilize wind and solar energy. Will the whole nation following California into such third-world status?/p pIn fact, I’m beginning to see startling similarities between the Bush Administration and the oppressive Taliban in Afghanistan. After the Taliban destroyed all the statues of Buddha in their country, they said they knew that they had done the right thing because badly needed rains began to fall in Afghanistan. In the end, what will be your justification for the chaos you are creating in California and our nation? /p pSincerely, Dee,br / br /An American in California,br / br /still one of the states in this union.br / br /A Californian who will vote for a presidentbr / br /in a state where Latinos outnumber whitesbr / br /and where citizens also care aboutbr / br /Little League Baseball.br / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p

pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/338/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Jeff Adachi/p pI, like many Japanese Americans, await the release of the film "pearl Harbor" with some anxiety and trepidation. Although Hollywood has promised a more sensitive treatment of the infamous bombing of Pearl Harbor, the thought of another Japan vs. America movie threatens to re-open old wounds and ignite already existing anti-Japanese and Asian sentiments, particularly in light of the recent poll reporting that anti-Asian prejudice is at an all-time high./p pI first learned of the "sneak attack" on Pearl Harbor in my third grade history class. Afterwards, on the school yard, a boy named George called me a "jap" and started a fight with me because "my parents had bombed Pearl Harbor." That evening, I asked my mother if she had anything to do with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. She explained to me that she was third generation American and had as little to do with Pearl Harbor as George's German-American parents had to do with Hitler's reign of terror./p pWhat I didn't realize at that age is that my parents had paid a terrible price for the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Within months of December 1941, my mother, father and their families, along with 110,000 other Japanese Americans, were given 48 hours to vacate their homes, close their businesses and churches, get rid of all their possessions and report to the assembly centers. For several months they lived in horse stalls before being shipped off to spend the next four years in barbed wire internment camps in Rohwer, Arkansas and Hila River, Arizona. Even though neither my mother or father had ever even been to Japan, they suffered the wrath of America's anger at Japan./p pThe internment took a great toll upon Japanese American culture. In camp, my grandparents did not teach my parents the Japanese language, customs or religion in fear that they might be accused of being Japanese nationalists. Even with their American citizenship, they were forced to submit loyalty oaths to prove their allegiance to America. For some, proving their loyalty became and obsession. Despite the cries from their distressed families, many young Japanese American men enlisted in the US army, fighting in segregated units which later became the most decorated units in history./p pAfter release from camps, my parents faced poverty and a country full of hostility and racism. Like most Japanese Americans, my grandparents worked to rebuild their lives, working in menial jobs to support the family. It took them years to reach a point where they could live a relatively normal life. And they never were able to fully recover from the social and economic devastation that they experienced in the camps./p pPearl Harbor was a horrible tragedy for the many hundreds of soldiers and innocent people who were killed and maimed. This new film version will expose a new generation of film viewers to this historical fact. However, I hope that somehow people will remember that there was another side to Pearl Harbor, a side that forever changed the destinies of the Japanese American community. It will forever remain a day of infamy for all Americans- including Japanese Americans.br / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p

pstrongTHE CALIFORNIA ECONOMIC HUMAN RIGHTS BUS TOUR CALIFORNIA MAY 29- MAY 31, 2001/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/339/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Food First/p pTo help build the national movement for economic human rights in the United States, Food First is organizing the 2001 Economic Human Rights Bus Tour in California to be held from May 29 to 31. This follow-up to our successful 1999 Georgia Bus Tour is drawing public attention to growing poverty and hunger in this country, and the powerful grassroots campaigns that are addressing these injustices. We are pleased to be endorsed by the fifty-four member Congressional Progressive Caucus and more than two hundred organizations from across the country./p pRepresentative John Conyers called Food First’s 1999 tour "the most important thing I’ve done this year." With this in mind, the 2001 tour is again bringing congressional representatives, state legislators, local officials, and the national media on the bus. They're hearing first-hand testimonies and policy recommendations, emphasizing the need for bolder initiatives and a greater community role in policy making. /p pThe tour highlights campaigns for justice in California and is expanding the call for economic human rights to a national level. Stops include a kickoff event at the St. Mary’s Center in Oakland, a downtown Oakland walking tour hosted by Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency (BOSS) of low income housing that is slated for destruction and business development, and the Day Labor Program in San Francisco. On our third day we'll visit the fields of the Central Coast to witness the fight by the United Farm Workers, Lideres Campesinas, and others for fundamental economic human rights to safe working conditions and access to basic health care. /p pAssaults on our country’s working poor continue to accelerate, and the California Economic Human Rights Bus Tour is a timely and dynamic opportunity to strengthen our networks in support of justice. Join with us in demanding economic human rights in the United States. /p pFor further information on the California Bus Tour and the national movement for Economic Human Rights, please visit our website at a href="http://www.foodfirst.org" title="www.foodfirst.org"www.foodfirst.org/a and contact us at a href="mailto:humanrights@foodfirst.org"humanrights@foodfirst.org/a or call (510) 654-4400 x235. /p pItinerary for Economic Human Rights Bus Tour in California May 29th - 31st, 2001br / (current as of May 25th , 2001)/p pTuesday May 29th - Oakland/p pnoon Kickoff at St. Mary’s Center and lunch – 635 22nd Street/p p1:00 pm Housing Crisis walking tour with Building Opportunities for Selfbr / Sufficiency/p p2:45 pm Public Hearing, St. Mary’s Center/p p5:30 pm First Congregational Church – UCC, Public event – 27th br / Harrison Streets/p pWednesday May 30th - San Francisco/p p9:30 am Day Labor Program – Franklin Square Park – 17th Hampshire, The Mission/p p11:30 am St. Anthony's Foundation and lunch – 121 Golden Gate Ave, Downtown/p p2:30 pm Heron’s Head Park /Bayview Hunter’s Point – Pier 98, East endbr / of Cargo Way/p p5:00 pm Community Bridges Beacon at Everett School - 450 Church St, Thebr / Mission/p pThursday May 31st - Salinas / Watsonville /p p7:30 am Board bus at Downtown Berkeley BART 10:30 am UFW field visit -Davenportbr / Noon UFW site visit, lunch – La Manzana Center -Watsonvillebr / 2:00 pm Teamsters 890 Meeting Hall - Salinasbr / with Lideres Campesinas, The Citizenship Project, The Center for Community Advocacybr / 4:15 pm AMO Organics’ Dorrance Ranch - Hollisterbr / 4:45 pm Return to Bay Areabr / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p

pstrongBlack population in SF drops 23% since 1990/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Kaponda/p pSan Francisco - It seems like a century has passed since then-President George Bush Sr. watched the Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants play in the World Series. It seems even longer since the term “people friendly” was used in connection with the housing and job market. But it’s been only a decade since that 1990 World Series, and in those 10 years, according to newly released census figures, San Francisco has suffered a net loss of nearly 20,000 African Americans. /p pWhile U.S. Census 2000 data suggest that America is a wealthy nation with a robust economy, reporting that the total population of every state in America has increased since 1990, the Black population in San Francisco has declined by 23 percent./p pFrom a high of 88,343 in 1970, San Francisco’s Black population dropped 4 percent to 84,857 in 1980, another 10 percent to 76,343 in 1990, and now 23 percent to 58,791 in 2000. Census experts had projected that the number of African Americans in San Francisco would rise to 79,095 over the past decade, assuming normal rates of births and deaths and migration in and out of the City./p pThis disappearance of one-fourth of San Francisco’s Black citizens in a single decade is no doubt a result of persistent economic discrimination and unaffordable housing. Blacks are locked out of jobs and business opportunities in both boom times and bust, while housing prices were pushed sky high by the once hot high-tech industry. More statistics on how and why the exodus is occurring, however, won’t be available for about six months, until census housing and income statistics are released in the fall. /p pThe epicenter of this earthshaking phenomenon is Silicon Valley. The impact of unbridled development that began there has radiated throughout nearby counties and communities, leaving in its wake displaced working-class families and cultural devastation.br / In 1990, the African American population in San Mateo County was 34,018, before the drastic impact of the out-of-control housing market. According to the data from Census 2000, however, 23,778 Blacks reside in San Mateo County today, a decrease of one third.br / In Santa Clara County, home to 52,860 African Americans in 1990, the Black population has dropped to only 44,475, a decrease of 16 percent./p pOver 600 Blacks disappeared from Marin County, as the population dropped from 7,552 in 1990 to 6,946, a decline of 6 percent./p pEven in heavily Black Alameda County, the African American population decreased 6 percent, from 223,994 in 1990 to 211,124 in 2000, a loss of 12,870 people./p pU.S. Census 2000 will be used to realign congressional, state legislative and City supervisorial districts, taking into account population shifts since the last census in 1990, to assure equal representation in compliance with the “one person, one vote” principle of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Because of the legislative significance of the data, I asked Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, who represents District 10, the heart of Black San Francisco, what could be causing the flight of African Americans from this and other counties bordering the high-tech hub? /p p“I think it’s twofold: the lack of affordable housing and the lack of the kinds of jobs that allow you to afford the housing that is available. So, economically, we (African Americans) are not getting into the types of jobs that will allow us to make the money to afford the homes,” she said. /p p“They are not building affordable homes that relate to the same jobs that we have. We are in the service industries: bus drivers, cab drivers, hospital workers, social workers, and teachers. Historically, those industries do not make a lot of money. I think this is the reason why we are no longer here,” stated Supervisor Maxwell./p pAt the Board of Supervisors meeting Monday, April 3, Supervisor Chris Daly called for a hearing into the reasons for the decline in San Francisco’s African American population. Supervisor Maxwell said she would bring to the hearing “some solutions and answers and things that we can do and work on so we can eliminate this problem, forever. I think that marketing, showing people that you want them to be there by providing the kind of jobs that will allow them to be able to live where they can work, is a solution.” The Bay View will announce the date and time of the hearing as soon as it is set./p pThis may be the year that the Giants or the Oakland Athletics return to the World Series. And with the help of proposals Supervisor Maxwell and others bring to the hearing, it also may be the year that African Americans begin to return to San Francisco./p p/p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p

pstrong pbIntolerance, withbr / religious tinged dogmatismbr / is a volatile, deadly mixture./b /p pbIn the end persecutedbr / and persecutor lose lives theirbr / souls suffering longer thanbr / petty earthly mortal bickering./bbr / /p/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Staff Writer/p pBeing a black Roman Catholic is difficult sometimes to believing in either abr / powerfully build wrathful old white haired-male as God or brown, yellow haired Caucasian with two younger sonsb{Blessed Trinity}/b/p pA former right hand Arch Angel created by God with too much pride and for the sin of showing that pride created by his master he’s condemned to his own private realm:Hades./p pSatan’s new role: tempting mankind. His reward, the priceless, eternal, human soul dammed to suffer forever in Satan’s domain for eternity./p pSometime now or in our near future during "The Rapture" people mortal and long dead including the ocean gives up its dead to rise to heaven./p pThe earth is filled with monster’s, war, disease’s, all manner of earthlybr / Dangers then the Mephistopheles reborn in human form returns using miracles to dazzle human’s and taking over the world as a false savior./p pI thought about this while reading a Washington Post item about what is happening in New Delhi. I’m an outsider but the labeling of Non-Muslim Afghans with distinctive yellow clothing as a way tellingb"True Believer’s/b from the rest sound like a next step in further persecution of Hindu population non-Talibanian’s./p pFirst blowing up two centuries-old Buddha carving using Islamic purity asbr / their reason. This will continue as fundamentalist gets more zealots./p pThe Dark one is given a thousand year reign before God and his/her soldier/ angels recapture Old Nick sealing him up forever in his own kingdom. /p pEarth is a paradise where no one dies, grows old, and no one is homeless because it is truly manifested on earth./p pThe millions that have left over the years from increasing oppression will be important because of their absence.bCAN YOU SPELL B R A I N D R A I N? I knew that you could. /b/p pThe best minds leave early, some of their children emigrate, professionals and working poor leave for better lives. /p pWomen will go if they break out the mental-religious dogma imposed on them and when force women not to work, think or be their best natural multi-faceted emotionally and brain balanced selves lets just say sleeping volcanoes, tornadoes, floods, and or earthquakes once unleashedbr / can never be fully under control ever again. /p pBetween this continuous religious inspired brain drain and dis-empower-br / ment of women in New Delhi in the 21st century there will be excuse thebr / hell to pay by the Taliban’s/p pAnd as for those destroyed statues they might be rubble but if scientist’sbr / and researcher’s of all faiths learn how to move atoms on the molecularbr / level the old rubble stays but new stones take its place./p pAs the molecules reform also etched into the two new stone Buddha’s are how the stones were first made by which people, who and why they were destroyed and how by combining true faith and science. /p pTHE BUDDHA’S ARE BACK and with other elements thrown in these statues will never be destroyed again because nano machines keep them in perpetual self repair./p pThink about it:Taliban's utterly destroy rebuilt buddha's only for them to regenerate fully formed again./p pThat’s the ultimate revenge without taking one Taliban’s life, it will drive true fundamentalist zealots crazy./p pI must thank Ms. Pamela Constable of the Washington Post. /p pPlease send donations to Poor Magazine C/0 Ask Joe at 255 9th St.Street, San Francisco,CA.94103 USA/p pFor Joe only snail mail:br / PO Box 1230 #645 Market St. San Francisco,CA 94102br / Email:askjoe@poormagazine.br / orgbr / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p

pstrongThe Insiders' Instruction Manual/strong/p pPart two in a series of satirical policy explanations for government and private social service providers. /p p/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/348/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Donna L. Anderson/PNN Texas Correspondent/p piThe prevalence of hypocritical practices in social services leads PNN Texas correspondent Donna Anderson to conclude that there must be an interagency conspiracy to keep the poor poor. The scenarios and statements presented here are based on her actual experiences during 12 years in social services./i /ppPolicy Statement: Keep the Poor Poor/p pStrategy No.2 "Go Ahead, Waste my Day!"/p pThe second strategy in our domestic policy to keep the poor poor, though almost cliché, continues to be highly effective. It is even fun (in a sadistic sort of way) for the many state, local government and non-profit providers who assist in implementing this strategy. What's is it?....................................Keep them waiting. /p pThis strategy is completely unobjectionable, even with the general populous, as everyone knows that poor people have a great deal of time on their hands. Some poor people don't work and those who do have no money to do anything in their spare time. This abundance of spare time cannot be allowed to fester creativity, inspiration, initiative, education and especially not organization among the poor. /p pIn order to keep fertile spare time at a minimum in the life of the poor, we must employ practices that ensure they will always be in the process of managing their poverty. Here are three common practices that most any organization can begin to use with minimal staff training and reorganization. /p p1. Block scheduling. This is a technique used in many Medicaid-frequented healthcare providers, non-profits and state TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, formerly Welfare) agencies. Rather than assign specific times to each patient/client, the agency selects two times daily, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, and schedules everyone to be seen at those times. Patients/clients arrive, sign in and are seen in order of their arrival. The first to arrive will be seen promptly, but most will have to wait to be seen, even up to several hours. The whole morning or afternoon can be consumed with one appointment in this manner. Exasperating waits tend to produce more apathetic patients/clients. Once they finally are called to be seen, they are so brow-beaten by hours of waiting with a sick child or several screaming and hungry children, that they are unlikely to ask thorough questions or demand anything they are entitled to that might require more time or effort./p p2. The Max. Instead of promptly assessing and acting on each client's needs, like a corporation that depends on its clients' repeat business might do, agencies working with the poor can set maximum time limits for assessment and determination. The state of Texas has a 30-day determination period for new TANF, Medicaid and Food Stamps applications. This means that an application for benefits must either be approved or denied within 30 days. However, it also means the case manager can take up to 30 days to make the determination. Even if the case manager can eyeball the application and determine that the applicant would not be eligible for services, she does not have to inform the applicant for a full 30 days. For example, many states have asset limits for Medicaid, Food Stamps and TANF applicants. An applicant may clearly state that she owns an automobile worth $4,000 ($2,000 over the asset limits). Though the case manager could inform the applicant that she will probably be turned down for benefits because her assets exceed the limit, the case manager can just hold off and let the applicant find this out via formal notification sent after the 30-day determination period. The case manager will have avoided a possible confrontation with a disgruntled applicant and will have succeeded in wasting the applicant's time with additional appointments and the ever-popular paper chase (see number 3 below). /ppThough time limits guarantee the agency some stall time, open-ended time lines can also work if crafted well. Take for instance the case of a TANF applicant in Georgia. In the first week after application she is required to attend a job readiness course. This course will repeat much the same information she has received in other futile "life skills" classes (the topic of an upcoming strategy). After a week of boring classes, she will have one more week to job search. If she does not find a job in that time, she must sit idle, waiting for her case manager to find her an appropriate work activity. With the literally hundreds of cases each case manager handles, the case manager is fully justified in neglecting the case indefinitely. This method deserves honorable mention for creating a win-win time waster. The client will likely begin to receive benefits, which will pacify her, and yet she makes no progress through the system. This is not a very effective way to keep welfare roles down, which tends to upset some of the more extreme (Nazi) legislators. But for the purposes of implementing the "Waste My Day" strategy, it is superb./p p3. The Paper Chase. Quite arbitrarily, agencies can require forms from clients to stall the delivery of services or the determination of benefits. Some popular forms that can be difficult to obtain include birth certificates and shot records for the client and all dependent children under 18, 3 months of bank statements, IRA statements, leases, credit card statements, past check stubs, old tax returns, social security cards, photo ID's and references from past employers, landlords, neighbors, elementary school teachers or anyone, really. The point is not to gather information. Many state systems have databases that can pull up most of this information in a matter of minutes. The point is to buy the system time: time the client spends. /p pOne initiative that is threatening the viability of the paper chase is the push for a "single point of entry," a centralized location with database that state and local government and even non-profits could tap into to access client records. This would make it unnecessary for the client to provide fresh documentation for each benefit or service she seeks and could substantially cut down on the time wasted in applying for services. However, social workers are not renowned for their technical abilities (it is rumored that many actually produced their college term papers with typewriters!). Though a great deal has been spent on consultants to introduce this technology, it is not an immediate threat./p p4. Ya'll come back now. No matter what the business, always schedule frequent appointments for clients. Get them into the office as often as possible. Make note of their days off and working schedules, so meetings can be scheduled at the least convenient times. Be inflexible if they press for a more convenient time. And it goes without saying that appointments should be made during typical working hours. This will keep the poor from using their spare daylight hours to get skills training or look for a better job./p pWith these four techniques in conjunction with poor transit systems of many cities, inflexible day care policies, the difficulty of flex scheduling in hourly wage jobs and countless other inconveniences, we can ensure that obtaining necessary benefits, accessing essential community services and staying healthy will be problematic at least and at best, damn near impossible. /p pAn added benefit to the "Waste My Day" strategy is that it empowers the employees who implement it. It can be used to team-build among employees. Everyone has experienced the frustration of picking the longest line at the grocery store, waiting at doctors' offices and even sitting in traffic. These delays create tension that employees can channel into making the poor wait. There is no greater sense of satisfaction and retribution than being able to inflict personal suffering on to others. Employees can regain control they lose at the grocery store, the doctor's office and in traffic by manipulating the schedules of those who seek their help. /p pEmployees should be trained in some basic skills such as keeping an expressionless face while repeating the phrase, "Please be seated and someone will be with you in a few minutes," as many times as is necessary to make the insolent poor person go away. It is also important, however much glee it might give an employee to make someone wait unnecessarily, that they turn away from the poor person before beginning to smirk, as a matter of good customer service. This strategy is one the entire office can bond around. Use it to not only keep the poor poor, but to boost agency morale as well. /p pStay tuned for the next strategy, "Kiss My Assets!"br / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p

pstrongVehicularily housed residents stage an art-action-rally to demand civil rights and establish a Bill of Rights/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/349/photo_1_feature.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Kaponda/p pVladlen Pogorelov drifts off into the visions of twilight as the inscrutability of night cloaks his metallic motor residence. The continuous thumps on his window forces him to swerve back into the predictability of reality. Like a cub that looks into the eyes of a raging hyena, Vladlen Pogorelov sees the eyes of a police smoldering with anger as he stands with a stick, camouflaged by the night, next to his side. Vladlen knows that he will be ordered to move his 25-foot motor home to another location because it has suddenly become an object of scorn and frequent harassment by the San Francisco Police Department and the Department of Parking and Traffic./p pThe dire circumstances into which Vladlen Pogorelov has fallen brought him and many other vehicularly housed San Franciscans to the steps of City Hall on Wednesday, May 30th, to ask for relief from a law that unfairly classifies, punishes and renders them as criminals because they have a quilt and padding inside their legally owned vehicles. The volley of protests against human and civil rights violations at the event, dubbed, “They Towed My House Away,” by homeless advocates and civil rights attorneys has put the ball back into the court of the Board of Supervisors and George Smith of the Mayor’s Office on Homelessness./p pI asked Paul Boden, director of the The Coalition on Homelessness, who, along with POOR Magazine, coordinated the event, to explain how the San Francisco Police Department can arbitrarily cite vehicles and cause people to lose their housing by having their motor homes towed away, which has become, not unlike oxygen, a necessary condition for a reasonably healthy life?/p p “[The Municipal Police Codes that regulate parking] were designed to make sure that poor people can be legally chased out of communities -- just like its a code that the parks are closed, and a code that people cannot stand on the sidewalk. These are codes that government created in order to chase away and make disappear poverty in our community. We are not talking about people who choose to be out there [in their vehicles],” stated an enraged Boden with the sting of an agitated wasp./p pVladlen Pogorelov, a 31-year old staff writer for PNN who immigrated to the United States from Crimea, was evicted from his apartment in San Francisco during the latter part of last year. He bought a motor home in which he had hoped to eat and sleep as well as survive. Vladlen resided at China Basin, and, according to him, became the target of an aggressive harassment campaign that included citations, illegal tows and seizures of vehicles without due process./p pAdam Arms, an attorney with the Civil Rights Division of the Coalition on Homelessness, in response to my questions to him about statements brought by POOR Magazine, the Coalition on Homelessness and victims of vehicles which have been seized by city officials, stated that the ongoing policy of The City has been to “Criminalize people who sleep in their vehicle.”/p p “To tow their cars and misuse the laws have been the ongoing policy of The City. Also, they have targeted these people for harassment. It has been the ongoing policy. However, in the last six months, this policy has escalated,” stated Arms, as he held a copy of a Vehicularly Housed/Towed Person’s Bill of Rights, which he stated contained language which provides grounds for the city to relent in its ongoing policy to criminalize vehicularly housed residents./p pThe San Francisco Police Department and Department of Parking and Traffic are authorized by law to issue a citation, which is called “red-tag,” to any vehicle that, in their opinion, appears abandoned or broken down, or is not moving for an extensive amount of time. This law has been used to relegate vehicles that are not abandoned to obscure areas in remote tow garages, and leave the victims marooned in a swirl of desperation./p pI attempted to contact the director of the Department of Parking and Traffic (DPT), Fred Hamdun, to inquire about this aggressive policy which the City has adopted. I spoke with Diana Hammond, Public Affairs Director of DPT. I asked Hammond why has The City invested so much energy in going after the 300 to 500 motor homes in the entire city the owners of which have the misfortunate of doubling up their vehicles for transportation and residence? /p pAccording to Hammond, “The SFPD enforces the codes that regulate signs posted around San Francisco for illegally parked vehicles and not DPT. But, if a vehicle is abandoned, then under DPT 37(a), we can cite and tow that vehicle [within the limits of the city], stated Hammond in reference to vehicles that have been put out of mind and out of sight by their owners, like fallen trees in the forest./p pAs POOR Magazine featured the Po’ Poets, who conveyed the significance of the event at City Hall through their spoken words, on a day when the sun sprinkled its torrid rays liberally, I had an opportunity to interact with Vladlen Pogorelov. I asked Vladlen what reasons are given him by police for parking when, according to Dianna Hammond, citations are supposedly only given to vehicles that have been abandoned?/p p “Most times I find that I am red tagged immediately, not too long after I arrive, which constitutes a form of harassment, for me. They oftentimes justify this by stating that someone called to complain about a vehicle,” stated Vladlen./p pI asked Paul Boden about whether he felt that DPT is justified when it follows up on a complaint by a resident about a vehicle in the neighborhood?/p p “I have yet to find a record of the complaints that they keep talking about. The fact that these laws are on the book and that this enforcement is a priority makes it too goddamned easy for the cops or The City or anyone else to say, ‘Oh, well we got a complaint.’ Think about all the times people complaint -- they complain about the weather, but you don’t see them out there trying to change that,” concluded Boden in a passion kindled like the flare of a match./p pI went to Diana Hammond of DPT to ask if she could respond to charges by Paul Boden that he has yet to find a record of the complaints by citizens./p p “I will be happy to provide you with a record of complaints,” stated Hammond. “We record that information in a Complaint Log. Currently, the information is logged in by hand and includes driveway and sidewalk complaints against the over 454,000 regular vehicles. So, it will require extensive copying charges. We are, however, in the process of converting it over to automation,” concluded Hammond./p pMany people at the protest also indicated that “a complaint” was the reason they were given for citations issued by the SFPD. I was unable to contact anyone at SFPD to respond to the allegation of the complaints that Paul Boden suggested were phantom in nature, a device not unlike the throw-away gun that has been a part of the arsenal of corrupt cops to fritter away human and civil rights of poor people across America. /p pAs the protest drew to a conclusion, the crowd prepared to hand-deliver a copy of the Vehicularly Housed/Towed Person’s Bill of Rights to each member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors./p p “Vehicularly housed San Franciscans have the Constitution of the United States to protect them from harassment. The City, however, is not respecting those rights. This is the reason why we are taking the entire thing before the Board of Supervisors and ask them to implement the last three points right away and help people out. The last three points are:/p p 1) The City shall implement a formal fee waiver procedure for indigent lawful owners, possessors, or operators of vehicles whose vehicles are towed;/p p 2) The City shall create a centrally located body at which vehicularly housed people can address issues related to payment of fees and fines, vehicle tows and recovery, and property retrieval; and/p p 3) The City shall not prevent lawful vehicle owners, possessors, or operators from retrieving personal property contained within towed vehicles,” concluded Adam Arms of the Coalition of Homelessness, as he walked into the halls of the seat of government of San Francisco, where weak-minded lawmakers have traditionally earned a reputation of sucking up corporate hush dollars in smoke-filled rooms and repressing the rights of the most neediest of humanity./p pOn Monday, June 4th, representatives of POOR Magazine and the Coalition on Homelessness met with George Smith of the Mayor’s Office on Homeless. According to Lisa-Gray Garcia of POOR Magazine and Adam Arms of the Coalition on Homelessness, there was not even a smidgen of effort by George Smith to write a letter or do anything else of substance to commit government to sign on to providing a remedy to the ongoing policy by San Francisco of its harassment of innocent people. George Smith stated in closing that, “I will look into it.”br / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p