Story Archives

by David Gilton Soma

1997 marked the end of an era, and the end to the life of one Rue Morrow—Egyptian immigrant, songwriter, sax player, and crack smoker.

Who shot Morrow down on a Tenderloin street corner on a cool November evening in 1997?.. and why? Was it…mistaken identity, drugs or turf rivalry? (Morrow was a street performer at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Warf)
We may never know the answer.

THE BRIDGE

Rue Morrow died that night…. but his music and his artistry refuse to be silenced, and until his song is published, the melody will continue to haunt the Third Street Bridge.

Rue Morrow was one of the few people I knew who didn’t mind being homeless. To Rue every day was an adventure. He lived at a homeless shelter at 5th and Bryant Streets in San Francisco (M.S.C. South). In the morning, at 5am, a staff member would walk between the rows of mats lined on the floor, yelling for people to wake-up. "Turn your blanket in for a breakfast ticket. Up and Adam gentleman …now!!!" Morrow would skip breakfast; instead he and his trumpet playing-partner George Stockton would head to the Third Street Bridge four blocks away to practice.

In the mid-1990's there were no apartments in the area, no live-work lofts, no dog walking yuppies to disturb the scenic backdrop of city lights, China basin, the bridge, and two homeless people making beautiful music. In fact, the only witnesses to this spectacle were the people who worked at the marine salvage company that was nestled in the spot now occupied by Pac Bell Park, and the bridge operator, himself a sax player. The marine company workers would show up at 4:45am for work as the boys were warming up on the bridge.

"Once they began to play the music was great…it was a kind of a light jazz that seemed like it floated across the water. Man I used to look forward to it. ", remembered Charlie Basset, one of the marine boat crew members.

The boys would rehearse on the bridge four or five days a week before going to Glide Memorial Church for a free breakfast.

THE WHARF

At about 9am each morning Fisherman’s Wharf can be seen teaming with tourists. They come from all over the country, and world, and they are there to see the sea lions, the Bay, Alcatraz, and yes, the street performers. The robot man who moves when you drop a coin in his cup, the spiky haired punks who, for a few bucks will take a picture with you, and of course, the music.

To hear them tell it, Morrow and Stockton, were the best, and made the most money. Each day the two could walk away with 200 dollars in their pockets, sometimes more. George Stockton was an excellent trumpet player, while Rue was only so-so on the sax, but Rue wrote the songs and was a master at working the wharf crowds.

Rue Morrow could have been a superstar. He loved people and there was nothing he wouldn’t do for you. The problem was he also loved crack and even though the boys got professional offers they could not seem to make it to their appointments.

THE WHITE HOUSE

The White House was a nickname for a small, X-rated movie house in the Tenderloin. White was the color of the product that one was to bring, share, and consume once you arrived for the party. The White House was known by so-called deviants worldwide, and they would come from all over the globe for the sex, drugs and partying that took place right out in the open.

After they would finish their performance both George and Rue would buy some crack and head to the theater. They would smoke, party and share stories. When the dope would run out, Rue Morris would make the run to the dope man on Leavenworth Street for more. It was on one of these runs that Morrow met his fate.

Rue Morrow went out to get some drugs for himself and some of his friends. And while on that mission he was shot, gunned to death in the street. Since that time the theater has been closed, and at least for a short time the community felt the impact of the death of Rue Morrow. Four days after Rue’s death, his partner George killed himself in an auto accident in the Tenderloin.

THE MORAL

Six day before he was killed, Rue Morrow handed me a notebook full of stories. It was filled with experiences that he and many of his friends had gone through. Morrow was a great observer of people. He would point to a group of homeless folk and say, "They look like no good, unwashed, beer drinking, drug taking, mentally unstable bums don’t they? Well they are…but each one of them is a human being and each one has their own story to tell." I’m gonna get that story out if it’s the last thing I ever do.

Rue’s war stories are quite a collection and since he didn’t have the chance to tell the story, I have taken up the banner. I am in the process of writing a screen play based on Rue’s notebook, his music and his life on the street. I am calling it "Quicksand".

THIRD STREET BRIDGE (HAUNTED?)

For some time now people have used the Third Street Bridge and area to practice their horn playing. Most days you will see people standing at the bridge playing a riff…enjoying the resonant sounds of China Basin. What surprised me was hearing one of Rue Morrow’s tunes in the wind. As I walked by the new ballpark and on to the bridge, no one was to be found. I am not the only one who has heard Morrow’s sax. Charlie Basset, one of the marine workers who used to listen to Morrow play in those early morning hours, said the music continued after Morrow’s death. In fact they continued to hear the music up until the marine workers were relocated to make way for the new Pac Bell Park.

The times, well they have changed, and the party it has ended, but now the story has to be told.

by Isabel Estrada/PoorNewsNetwork Youth in the Media intern

I was dodging sheets of rain on Wednesday November 28th as I hurried towards 340 Townsend, the offices of KMEL radio, to attend a rally and protest of the firing of Davy D. Luckily my jacket was warm enough but it wasn’t waterproof so I was glad when another woman going to the rally came up from behind and covered me with her umbrella. I wondered if maybe the rally had been canceled until I came upon a group of people huddled under an awning. Marvin X was speaking, "David "Davey D" Cook was a "victim of corporate terrorism." As an African-American DJ who used his radio show, called Street Knowledge, on KMEL 106.1 as an open forum for the voices of bay area youth, Davy D was getting in the way of the corporate media’s agenda of "dumbing down America."

Davey D was fired on October 1st 2001 after serving KMEL as community affairs coordinator for 11 years. According to the station his firing was due to budget cuts but nobody really believes that. I’m more inclined to believe that it was because he talked about important and controversial issues openly. Only weeks before he was fired he had conducted an interview with Congresswoman Barbara Lee of Oakland, the one dissenting vote on George W. Bush’s War Powers Act.

A sign being held behind me reads "KMEL The People’s Station?????????????" According to Ricky Vincent KMEL is the "enemy of the people," as a station that actually took away what little space Bay Area youth of color had on air. I spot Davey D. in the crowd, facing me with his hands in his pockets looking mad and somewhat fidgety. Oddly enough, especially for him, he was silent the whole night except for the brief acknowledgements he gave when someone complimented him. When Pecoya, Soul Sista Soul, came to the microphone she had us all chant "KMEL is not the people’s station." Pecoya sees Davey D’s firing as "symptomatic of what’s going on in the nation." From making it easier to acquire a warrant for a wire tap to detaining Green Party member Nancy Oden at Bangor Airport in Maine for no apparent reason, our civil liberties are being swallowed up as I write this article.

According to Pecoya, in Davey D’s case, he was one of the few people who provided Bay Area youth of color "access to skills a lot of inner city gangsters wouldn’t get any other way." Pecoya believes that being able to attain and discuss information like that provided on Davey D’s show Street Knowledge, is "paramount to each and every one of our survival." The team working to put Davey D back on air has three demands:

1. That Davey D. be reinstated as KMEL community affairs coordinator and that his show "Street Knowledge" be put back on the air immediately.

2. Increased community access and that issues that closely relate to the listening population (i.e. police brutality, gentrification) be discussed openly on air.

3. That KMEL demonstrate a true commitment to Bay Area Hip Hop and that KMEL support Bay Area Hip Hop artists by playing their music on air.

When JR Valrey stepped up to the microphone he didn’t waste any words. "They ain’t gonna do nothing if we don’t force them," he says of KMEL. His voice rang out over the crowd as he spoke of how KMEL is constantly playing "records that don’t talk about our real situations, our real lives. It’s a hard life. Let’s talk about being hungry."

Next to speak was a tall man dressed all in black with a gold ring on his pinky finger. He had emerged during the rally from a limousine surrounded by other men dressed in suits. He had neatly trimmed facial hair and a red feather in his hat. I heard someone call him a minister but when he took the microphone he didn’t say his name or where he was from. His words glided smoothly off his tongue, speaking of how Davey D had given people "a forum [to discuss issues] that are not always in harmony with what mainstream media wants." He was interested in the bigger picture. "There’s a world coming down around us…they don’t want the people enlightened…they don’t want any voices that threaten the status quo." He said "change your listening habits" and asked people not to shop at stores that support KMEL.

There were several powerful speakers including, Eve Patterson, Executive Director of Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, Keith Carson and Wilson Riles who is running for mayor in Oakland and Van Jones from Bay Area Police Watch.

To close the rally, Soul Sista again stepped to the microphone to say, "we want to hear brothers speaking." She looked around at the 40 or so people surrounding her without dismay saying that next time each person would bring "10, 20, 30" people with them and the movement would only grow. She emphasized, "this is the beginning and not the end." She then led us in chanting, "Ain’t no power like the power of the people, ‘cause the power of the people don’t stop," as we made our way over to the KMEL headquarters. There we met four police officers standing in front of the door, feat apart, hands on hips and with sour faces. We ended the chanting with louds shouts and claps. I could just see the KMEL Board of Directors squirm.

As the rally began to disperse I saw the man with a red feather in his hat walking away and being followed by the men in suits. It was still raining but I figured it was my duty as a writer to go and ask his name. I splashed through the flooded street, feeling the water soak into my socks, and finally made it up to the last man in a black suit and asked what church they were from. He refused to tell me and told me that the man with a red feather was the spokesperson. I asked again with disbelief if he could tell me the name of the church, again he refused. So then I ran up to the man with the red feather and cut into his conversation with some other men. I felt shorter than usual among these tall men but I butted into the conversation and asked the spokesperson what church he was from. He looked down and said as though surprised to see someone there, "Mosque, Nation of Islam." When I asked his name it was clear he was anxious to get back to his conversation but he paused to say "Christopher."

Besides my discomfort at approaching a man who was surrounded by what I now realize were bodyguards I felt especially stupid at having asked what Church he was from. I resolved from now on in my journalistic career to always ask someone’s denomination instead of depending on what I hear from someone else. The whole incident reminded me of the scene in the Spike Lee movie "Malcolm X" in which the white woman runs up frantically to Malcolm X and he looks at her with ridicule.

I walked away feeling angry. For some reason I hadn’t been treated with the respect that I believe I as a young woman of color in solidarity with the cause, deserved. However, the feeling of the night in general soon overshadowed anything else. As one young man named Drew put it, "If you don’t stand for nothing’, you’ll fall for anything."

by Joe B.

If our applied science is so good, why is it I have to rewrite my whole column I finished yesterday?

Its frustrating to come up with an idea, theory, or use someone Else’s. [naming source of course]

If I remember here how it went. Either the late Science fact/fiction writer Issac Azimov or two brother’s by the name of Mc Kenna if its David or Terrence or even if that’s the correct names.

Any-who There is a working theory of a 60 year shift in the first discovery and everyday use of the newly discovered technology in common use.
The theory goes: it takes 60 years to complete a cycle where a new technology or science becomes advanced enough to be tailor made for the population of average people to use when cost is low enough. I sound halfbaked though the theory works.

Take three inventions the Automobile, Electric Light,
and the Telephone all three had their beginnings in the 19th century except for the car which may have arrived by the 1890’s. [correct me if I’m in error] It takes time for new ideas of change plus technology, science and applied science [where T&S are researched until applications can be used for governments, business-commercial-consumers uses.
[I was looking for person(s) coming to that and other conclusions be for writing this, OH, Well.

War makes looks of money for companies selling arms America included but the downside is lost of best and brightest
citizens and tech improving lives is on the wane.
Peace is a time when applied science can soar without budget concerns because the economy is not straining to keep death creating arms flowing to soldier in warzones.
Just because a story about a young teen who no longer suffer from a malaria preventing blood sickling in Africa which in America is no advantage but a painfull deadly or trait carrying one. Mr. Keone Penn’s A type blood, changed by an unknown stranger’s type B umbilical cord blood has left no trace of Sickle Cell disease! Even though he’ll have to go through more operations, has arthritis, he won’t die of sickle cell.
Mr. K. Penn may even beat arthritis before he’s in his early 40’s. Meanwhile the war in Afghanistan is slowly winding down as breakthrough here and abroad continues.
It is hard to disengage from 9/11/01 especially on Dec. 7, 2001 because of 1941 and comparing them but peace is coming, it will be here and applied science or the bitter now cursed word progress will be an ongoing.
A war protects, kills, stimulates or speeds technological progress but ultimately war is massive death on vast scales of the young, best and brightest who futures or cut short, derailed, delayed, and forever changed a few for the better.

And for the not as gifted it can be a career during and after surviving killing grounds where these conflicts are fought.

Warriors and Soldiers are the ultimate peacekeepers because they know first what war does human bodies and spirit.

All this means is this war will end, our recession could deepen but don’t forget we humans are an adaptive, creative, inventive species.

We must destroy war, it is backward, devolutionary and not worth our precious mortality.

If I’ve have failed to connect and disconnect war and technology and that peace will always reap more rewards than conflict… It proves teaching is not my future to observe scribble is.

May all of us come out this conflict better, smarter stronger, more sensitive to global and local concerns. Bye.

Please donate what can to
Poor Magazine or

C/0 Ask Joe at 255 9th

St. Street, San

Francisco, CA. 94103 USA

For Joe only my snail

mail:PO Box 1230 #645

Market St.San Francisco,

CA 94102

Email:askjoe@poormagazine. org.

by Joe B.

I have wondered, how did a successful stand-up comic with equal success with a sitcom show 'about nothing?

Nothing unsual about that except he actually pitched it to prospective tv execs who bought the concept, it was even in one of the episodes.

I also wonder how "nothing" has saved many lives just think of 9-11-01 and people who survived because at the time they were out of work, on vacation, or decided that particular day to do nothing.

Think about the adverse affect to if medical, law, or armed forces to a man said "We're doing absolutely nothing for the next year or more."

There would be uproar and hoopla and loose talk of mass dishonorable discharges or court-martials.

The ultimate nothing is Quantum Mechanics or theory where at atomic and subatomic levels strange stuff happens like nutrino's race through earth and our bodies making the speed light look old and slow.

Molecules in both places simultaneouly and we as observers with our thoughts are changing reality on a quantum level changing it in ways we don't understand yet.

I usually stop thinking now because the nerves impulses making up graymatter in my brain begins throbbing causing brain freeze.
[simular to eating icecream too fast] I'm still thinking of housesitting but being bonded means if something breaks or the place is robbed I'm responsible.

That's why there are $10, 20, 50, to 100,000 bonds - starting at $300 to 500 dollars would be a start until former customers can vouch for my sterling trustworthy self.

Its over, this experiment in zero, abyss, nothingness, empty,
nebulous void. How's your "nothing" life doing folks"? Bye.

Please donate what can to
Poor Magazine or

C/0 Ask

Joe at 255 9th St.

Street, San Francisco, CA. 94103 USA

For Joe only my snail

PO Box 1230 #645

Market St.San Francisco,

CA 94102

Email:askjoe@poormagazine. org

by Gretchen Hildebran/PoorNewsNetwork

I was relieved to see the sky and breathe the soft
afternoon air. As I left the imposing gray building a
man from the Mayor's Office on Homelessness caught up
with me. He looked puzzled. "So you think homeless
people should be allowed to own the sidewalk they live
on?" I tried to disengage from the conversation
quickly, as I wanted to get on with my Saturday and
felt I had done what I could to advocate respect for
all residents in the path of the Redevelopment's (SFRA)
"revitalizing" reach. And I had hoped that the
mayor's bureaucrat for the homeless would understand
the concept on his own.

Unfortunately, most mayoral appointees tend to
disappoint. Most recently, the commissioners of the
SFRA , in charge of reviewing and approving development
in their Project Areas, have been stuck in a political
deadlock that has effectively stopped crucial SRO
construction in its tracks. At a SFRA hearing on
October 30, 2001 plans to rebuild the Plaza Hotel, which
would create a desperately needed 115 units of
low-income housing at 6th and Mission, were crashed by
the swing vote of recently appointed commissioner
Michael Settles. Despite the outraged reaction of 300
area residents who showed up to support the project,
the commissioner rejected the plans, claiming that
they didn't follow the proper "systems model."

Teresa Yanga, Housing Development Coordinator at
Tenant and Owners Development Corporation (TODCO),
expressed that group’s disappointment that the project
has been indefinitely stalled, and called the issue a
political football. The Plaza Hotel property was
purchased early this year by the Redevelopment Agency
and TODCO was the only housing developer to place a
bid on the rebuilding contract. After a thorough
review process, TODCO was recommended to develop the
property by the staff of the SFRA.

"We are a qualified applicant who followed the
protocol," said Ms. Yanga, "This project had community
support and would have been something positive in the
area." The plans for the hotel also included
street-level space for Bindlestiff Studio and a
Filipino-American cultural arts center.

With the
refusal to grant the contract to TODCO, the slim
majority of SFRA commissioners turned its back on
community support and their own staff’s
recommendation. The commissioners who voted against
the project also ignored the fact that the Plaza Hotel
units would finally replace the SRO units destroyed in
the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, one of the SFRA’s
original goals of the Project Area.

The vote represents an attempt to shift the policies
of the Redevelopment Agency in the city, beginning
with breaking off the Agency’s long-standing
relationship with non-profit housing developers. The
source of this shift can be traced back to Willie
Brown’s most recent "State of the City" address, when
the mayor suggested that the SFRA should not just fund
affordable housing in the city, but should also take
over the development and management of these projects.

Certain commissioners, led by president Benny Yee,
have taken this suggestion as a directive for ending
relationships with organizations like TODCO, who has
historically developed many of the Agency’s low-income
projects. TODCO currently has several other projects
in development, such as the Delta Hotel on 6th and
Mission, which are threatened by the Commissioners’
actions.

Why the mayor and certain SFRA commissioners have
taken this direction is a mystery to activists and
non-profit developers, says Quentin Mecke of the South
of Market Anti-Displacement Coalition (SOMAD). "The
pie is getting smaller," Lee said when I spoke with
him, suggesting that the economy may be a factor.
However, the activist does not think that for-profit
developers will get in on the low-income housing
market, simply because it is impossible to clear a
huge profit margin.

It is a concern, however, that the agency would
attempt to partner with for-profit developers like Joe
O’Donohue in creating more "mixed-income" housing.
This idea is ominously familiar to those of us who
attended the same PAC meetings on the Mid-Market area,
where profit-driven developers were insistent about
the "impossibility" of dedicated low-income housing
(See "Lost Between the Lines" Parts 1&2). "Many
people speak of the ‘unghettoization’ of 6th Street,"
remarked Mecke, "Instead of working on so-called
’mixed-income’ projects, they need to look towards
successful models of SROs, such as the Rose Hotel,
which counter stereotypes about SROs."

Fortunately, there are indications that the new
directive will fail. The SFRA staff is preparing an
assessment of the Agency’s ability to develop and
manage its own properties and should present the
findings as early as December 18th, but the idea is
not popular. Several commissioners have stood up for
the important role of non-profit housing developers,
although this split has meant that the Agency’s work
has ground to a halt.

"No one will trust the commission enough to bring them
a plan now," commented Mecke. "It is profoundly
embarrassing to see them at work, to see how much they
hate each other." The SFRA is the biggest funder of
low-income development in the city and for tenants and
poor folks in need of truly affordable housing, this
is an enormous political glitch that could leave us
all out in the cold.

"The community needs to take a stand," Mecke insisted.
Only public pressure and embarrassment could cause a
behind the scenes shifting of commissioners to bring
projects back online. SOMAD is holding workshops to
inform tenants of the situation and give them the
technical capacity to represent their communities in
front of the commission. "This is a fund of public
money and the commission needs to be accountable,"
said Mecke. "It is a classic example of systemic
power. They don’t want people to be able to speak
up."

Learning of this debacle reminded me of my frustration
at the Mid-Market PAC meetings this fall. The more I
advocated for a plan that would address actual needs
in the neighborhood, the more I was told how
"unrealistic" that idea was. The massive political
forces behind city appointments, funding and
development at the Redevelopment Commission has left
the Agency little room to get anything done. But
these commissioners don’t work for the mayor, they
work for us, and right now they need a giant reminder.

The SF Redevelopment Agency Commissioners meet

Tuesday afternoons at 4pm in City Hall Room 416.

Their agenda is posted on their website at

www.ci.sf.ca.us/sfra and the meetings are broadcast on

KPOO, 89.5 FM.

by Becky Johnson

Dear Ms. Gaura,

In your article today about Camp Paradise, you state the following: Critics warn that previous attempts to create legal camping for the homeless in Santa Cruz, including a tent city and car camping zones, have failed dramatically.

Which critics are you quoting? Why don't these critics have names and quotes? Regarding the previous attempts at a car camping zone, which "failed dramatically" as you put it, could you elaborate? Wasn’t that when a previous City Council voted on a first reading to set up safe zones in the industrial area, leading you to write in a Chronicle article that the City of Santa Cruz had repealed its entire camping ordinance?

Have you ever corrected that completely false information you published then? Do you have any information at all on the "failure" of those car camping zones? How could they fail when they were never opened? I notice there is no such information in your article today.

I find it appalling that you write today of the past "dramatic failure" of those car camping zones when it was your misinformation published prominently in the SF Chronicle that led to the defection of Council member Katherine Beiers on the 2nd reading of the ordinance. The ordinance, if it had passed, would have legalized sleeping in the two industrial zones of Santa Cruz, but not repealed the entire camping ordinance as you reported at the time.

As for the failure of the Coral Street Open Air Shelter, in December of 1995, a topic I'm sure you know nothing about as well, it "failed" when City Council members Scott Kennedy and Mike Rotkin came down and closed the campground and threatened anyone who stayed with arrest. Upwards of 225 homeless people were dislocated and several deaths were reported as a direct result of the closure of that facility. If that's a failure, it belongs to the City of Santa Cruz and does not belong with either the campground or the homeless people who took refuge there.

You report of some mysterious "magnet syndrome" but provide no statistics to support your contention. You report of "tons of trash" and "environmental damage" caused by homeless people but you provide no evidence of this damage nor have you explained how the City could differentiate the trash of 1000 homeless people from the trash left by 2.3 million tourists to the Boardwalk each year.

Your anti-homeless bias is showing. If you can't report straight facts when it comes to homeless issues, perhaps you should switch to the garden report. That way your tainted reporting with its underlying bias will only threaten the marigolds and not threaten the health and safety of the human beings involved.

Becky Johnson

Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom

Santa Cruz, Ca.

by Sandra Brown and Fiona Gow

My familiarity with Juvenile Dependency Court started almost three years ago, I was living in a shelter and with great love and sorrow, I decided to place my daughter in a children's shelter for five days. I put her in this situation because I caught scabies and it was contagious and I was concerned that I would infect her.

With no family to turn to, and no home of my own, this decision was the best I could make for my little girl. Within days CPS attained possession of my child, took her out of the shelter, and sentenced her to foster care. To date, she has been detained in four different foster homes. My daughter currently resides at The Edgewood Center for Children and Families.

At my last court date I had more in a series of disrespectful encounters with court officials. I have a strong presence and people take notice when I walk into a room. Even so, I work very hard to maintain my dignity in these courtrooms. I wanted the judge to know how serious I was and informed her that I had fired my court appointed attorney because I felt my attorney was not accurately representing me.

The judge, probably enraged at the determination she saw within me, yelled at me, "You can’t just go around firing lawyers!" Her's was one of the many voices that shot like needles into me. All of my experiences with these people who were supposedly there to help had been filled with pain. But I am not one to back down and in this battle I continue to gather my strength.

I responded to her angry words, "Yes I can. It’s my legal right." Did this judge not realize how serious this battle was to me? I could not have someone I did not trust representing me in the most important battle of my life.

At this last court date, the Juvenile Dependency Court judge kicked me out her courtroom because I too persistently asked her for the meaning of a word. She had used a word I didn’t understand in speaking of me to the City Attorney and I felt it was my right to know what was being said. This was only one in a long line of disrespectful experiences had had within this court.

I am also very upset about the representation my child has received. I feel that her attorney has presented false information about her. This attorney has never checked on the safety of my child in the 2 years that she has been her attorney. What kind of attorney is this?

My opinion is that the attorneys and judges who work with the Department of Social Services, the Family and Juvenile Courts, Juvenile Probation officials, Mental Health Clinic workers, the S.F. Police Department, the S.F. District Attorney, the Foster Care Licensing Agency, and the S.F. Unified School District and Board of Education all provide false representation. They may be smiling, going to church with us, or even working with us, but underneath I feel they are destroying our children.

Watch out for these people who say that they are there to help. They are everywhere… They hold different positions in the City departments, community organizations and centers, and drug programs. They may work as mental health counselors or work in churches, temples, hospitals, and schools. Some of them may even be your family members and family friends. So watch out!

December 4th, 2001 was my daughter’s birthday. She is still not with me. Who did she celebrate her birthday with? Who did I celebrate her birthday with? How am I to endure this? How am I to overcome this struggle?

For answers I find myself looking to the Bible. I want to suggest to others in facing similar hardship that you get your Bible and read Ezekiel 23:36-48, about the wicked mothers. Genesis 19:1-11 is also very relevant as is St. Luke 18:15-6 where the disciples refuse the little children. Lastly, I suggest that you read all of Jude.

This biblical background reminds me of the book about Mary McCloud Bethune. The book tells of how her 12 brothers and sisters were sold into slavery like animals. I feel that my experience with the Department of Social Services, Foster Care Licensing, the Juvenile Courts, Family Courts and Children’s medical facilities parallels Mary McCloud Bethune’s story. I am experiencing the modern day version of having my children sold into slavery.

These injustices have been going on in our communities for over 50 years and no one has had the courage to challenge them. But with Jesus Christ directing me I will, as Rosa Parks did, take a stand. I must, because our future existence is at stake! We as a people must rid our communities of all false things, running them out and praying fervently to denounce the demonic curses placed on our families, our churches, and our organizations.

I am making a plead to every Born Again Christian to take up your shield of faith, your breast plate of righteousness and truth, your feet of peace, your helmet of salvation, your sword of the spirit. Take the word of God to claim and walk and talk in victory for our children. Bless our mother country Africa from now on. Please contact us at 921-4935 to join the Victorious movement of Rebuilding our communities.

by Joe B.

I woke up 7:23 am. Sluggishly took a long, lengthy shower until I feel tingling clean and by 8:39 I’m out my apartment complex and on Market Street.

It is less people on the sidewalk with few cars moving slowly in the street stopping at lights, going through lights, and me as a pedestrian waiting until a car or two zips trough intersections not waiting for walker’s to cross.

After being hit by cars in New York. and in California years later. These separate incidents taught me not only to always look both ways but take time crossing even after the light turns green or the white-walking-figure is one because auto’s don’t really see us.

Nothing really happened today at least after newsroom.

It’s a dull day, nothing is going on as I leave POOR’s office, walking home. 5:23 pm. back in the old neighborhood.

The American war in Afghanistan is another way of avoiding festering problems of economic woes further worsened by this conventional weapons destroying other countries infrastructures.

I don’t know what will happen after this undeclared war ends but I do know our progress has been slowed by this conflict.

I’m ready for all the governments including ours to open their secret files on any alien science that landed, crashed, or was accidentally found and used for other purposes than exploration and improving our condition.

I’m thinking what if aliens are visiting ordinary, everyday folk in parks, their homes, apartments, shelters, and are in disguise.

People who are homeless or working poor are not deemed important to the country as a whole and would be a perfect place to hide, gather, information, or befriend a few.

It would be logical place to hide among working poor or those in shelters instead of making spectacles of themselves near the White House landing on the lawn or hovering over the Capitol Dome.

If I ever met an alien-in-hiding he/she/sex neutral could have a safe space if they shared some of their tech ‘n science like slowed aging, trans-matt (teleportation science and technologies).

That’s what I am musing about as I enter Market Street at 5:48 pm.

A few people think I’m one... It's ridiculous, on the other hand[just kidding]

A normal looking woman, man, boy, or girl child working in a non profit or for profit fields doing their jobs but afterwards gather information for purposes we earther’s cannot imagine.

Just a thought. The night is lightly cold and I shiver a little. Bye.

Please send donations to
Poor Magazine or in C/0
Ask Joe at 255 9th St. Street, San Francisco, CA. 94103 USA

For Joe only my snail mail:
PO Box 1230 #645
Market St. San Francisco, CA 94102
Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by Joe B.

Housesitting, it means not mean our literal rear ends sitting atop the room of a home straddling it two edges that meet and forms the exterior protection of a house.

It simply means watching someone's home or your own from inside.

It should be called house watcher since that's what sitters do.

Baby-sitters don't sit on infants or small children they watch over and supposedly protect them while the parent(s) or relatives are away.

For me being a housesitter would be a dream occupation in that I receive part payment and the rest when homeowner return.

If they [the owners] have pets I must know their daily feeding, sleep, and outside walking exercise schedules, individual moods.

My main problem for now is being bondable, that's having a set insurance price on myself in case I brake anything.

One can be insured for 100, 300, or more dollars but I know it would have to be at least a few thousand and to show prospective customers the legal documentation, phone and address of the insurance company or corp. that drew up the contract with signatures along with my signed.

It will take time building up both trust and having $5,000 to $10,000 bondable insurance on my person but its not impossible.

The neighborhood or closest well known neighbor are notified that a stranger is hired by them to live in their home while they are away but just in case they too can watch the watcher and call the proper authorities if something seems a bit off to them.

Prices for watching someone's most precious of possessions their home should have sliding or set prices.

My price for example would range from $25 per day for apartment complex or small cottage 2 to 4 bedrooms, $100 a week, and $2 or $3,000 a month.

As you can see the longer one stays the more expensive the cost because of the time inside a home.

Year, I know what you'll say "Your 'doin 'nothin but laying about an empty house living off the fat in someone's homes." [I must remind buyers of my services, I don't wash window's, cars, chimminies, or tell preteens or older, bigger children what to do, unless they're doing harm to themselves as in drugs,
drink, glue, ear bleeding music ect.

Though I may help clean up their party-while-parents-are-away-mess, but that's all;[sex with minors NO WAY EVER!

I'll Quit and Complain Later.]

For certain houses, flats, mansions with 20 or more rooms my price increased to 50 to $100,000 monthly though prices are negotiable.

Living in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, or any of those cities where people even after Sept. 11, 2001 must travel on short or extended business trips or vacations need to know their homes will be safe from robbers be they friends, neighbors, or a hired and trusted housesitter.

I just don't know where to begin the process of becoming a part time or professional housesitter, there must be someone that knows.

I met a lady, Sally, and she tells me she placed an add in the paper and she was lucky that it didn't take months but a few weeks she had a gig. (entertainment jargon for job)

"Get some or half your money up front."

I did house-sit once a few years ago for a week.

I walked and fed a friendly dog every day, took out the garbage, washed the clothes, cleaned every dish and glass I ate or drank out of.

My pay was $20 which was what I asked for, I could've asked for more but didn't - was an experience.

So, if housesitter's or former housesitters can help e-mail me about the process, is there a housesitters book I can buy or union to join, maybe a club?

Anyway for those of you out there reading... I need some help.

I think I'll set my housing price for all to see. ...Bye.

P.S.

My price range: $25 per day for apartment or small cottage home 1 to 3 bedrooms, $100 a week, and $2 or $3,000 a month, certain homes, flats, mansions with 20 or more rooms are to 50 to $100,000 monthly though prices are negotiable.

Please send donations to
Poor Magazine or in C/0
Ask Joe at 255 9th St. Street,
San Francisco, CA. 94103 USA

For Joe only my snail mail:
PO Box 1230 #645
Market St. San Francisco, CA 94102
Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by Joe B.

A heavy rain Sunday and today the sounds of car tires speeding on Market's wet streets.

Hurry through a quick, careful washing body, brushing of teeth minus flossing.

It’s 8:15 am. Rushing to the job. 10 0’ clock is when I'm to be in the office today but I have some errands to run first so I'll go to the office, set up the coffee then continue my business before ten church bells ring.

My eyes seem out of focus, color cones adjusts them to my pants.

I see gray knowing the pants are green. Going down the Bart subway, the florescent lights made them look green again.

Am I losing color recognition, is my sight going monochromic or is it slowly fading.

Either way its a slight scare. Luckily my cones work as people enter and exit from the station waring bright clothes of color.

Now to make the coffee quickly, return home, get to the bank, for a haircut and Las Vegas spending money.

After a withdrawal of cash racing for a real-time cooked meal on a grill one can see in a regular restaurant.

I pass by a cop detaining two dudes and sitting all bashed up is guy with one cut bruised eye the other blue-purple with light pink on the edges.

The guy is young, looks like he was mangled by one of those steamrollers with the huge, square, steel, points on them.

It looked as if he got run over, survived it intact but was brutally tenderized in the process.

Before catching a bus I see an elderly white guy baring his rump against a wall in the middle of a bower movement.

"Now that’s a mess on Market famous photo’s are made from and yet he’s half of 1% of the people that make up citizens here.

Most of us would look for other places to go like gas stations, café’s, those warehouse supermarkets, or Golden Gate restroom if their open – foliage in the forest if we gotta go quick.

I do not how long this series will continue, I’d like to be through with it by 2001’s end now that others have taken up the cause my written scrawls and I’ll move on to other things.

I just hope folks begin again to research his/hers-stories to relearn what our and other great countries have done both in the far and recent past and scary present.

We’ve seen, lived, know the mean old past, we’re not going back and this government seems bent on a backward spin to the so called "Good Old Days" To bad our future is calling us and it says look, listen, learn, and don’t be a drone following laws that are inhumane and draconian in nature.

We Are The Government, State, County, City, Neighborhood, and Block.

The last days of Angry, Frustrated, In-Power, Middle Aged, and Elderly White Men and Women are in a new time that has already dawned.

Let’s all walk in sunlight and among the stars. Opps, got ahead of myself, sorry.

Its drying up on Market Street and soon it’ll be time for all of us with family or without to enjoy what we can of the holiday season.

If I do not communicate for a few weeks it will be because I’m still among family and a few friends ringing in 2002.

Man! 2001 was a rough, eye opening year, America and the whole world changed forever, our "Selected President" acted like he’s the all knowing One turning Afphganistan’s infrastructure into rubble.

But just as darkness began to blot out the sun brilliant "Limitless Points Of Light" have shown the way from the shadow.

I thank those who’ve risked life, limb, and jail time for speaking out and I pray more voices continue because this Siege Mentality is still going on, we must out shout, think, love it down.

One more thing I must say.

Could it be that true Globalization ultimately means Global Peace and Cooperation?

Is the key to peace and then we can get on with Genome Transformed Humanity, Life Extension, Immortality, God’s Return, [which may be a few of days meaning thousands of years and not the endtime now.]

Cleansing Earth, A.I.- robotics, Virtual Reality so real its spooky, living in space, and finally meeting or becoming a true intergalactic, cosmic civilization.

Just a few things people like me in the so called "Mess On Market" Street think about.

Well, Live, Learn, Love, Experience, Survive, and Evolve.

If I made sense any sense at all e-or snail mail me. Bye.

P.S. My price range: $25 per day for apartment or
small cottage home 1 to 3 bedrooms, $100 a week, and

$2 or $3,000 a month.
certain homes, flats, mansions with 20 or more rooms are
50 to $100,000 monthly though prices are negotiable.

Please donate what can to
Poor Magazine or

C/0 Ask

Joe at 255 9th St.

Street, San Francisco, CA. 94103 USA

For Joe only my snail

mail:PO Box 1230 #645

Market St.San Francisco,

CA 94102

Email:askjoe@poormagazine. org