Re: HPN posts - Thanks! - SF Mayor - WTO
Coalition on Homelessness, SF (coh@sfo.com)
Thu, 2 Dec 1999 17:17:55 -0800
>How come you're not in Seattle, Chance?
I want to be... I really want to be. I also wanted as position here
at the Coalition with more responsibility, and guess what? Lucky me,
I got what I wished for. So now I have a paper to edit and a
homeless deaths report to prepare for the Health Dept. before 12/22
(preliminary homeless death counts are already at 177 - 20 more than
last year's count). And they're getting ready to introduce a bill to
"reform" involuntary commitment statutes in the California
legislature - and erase the human and civil rights of all of us with
psychiatric disabilities in the process. YIKES!
So, instead of dressing up like a sea turtle and doing consumer tests
on Israeli army surplus gas masks, I'm either at my desk or dashing
off to yet another meeting.
Oh yeah, there's also all those long hours I'm devoting to running
Willie Brown's lying ass out of San Francisco.
>Kids in the year 2020 will ask
>were you at the Battle, and you'll have to say no.
Tom, did I ever tell you about 1968, when I was the tender age of thirteen?
I first met the Beast we all fight against at a little patch of green
in Chicago named Grant Park. There was a convention there, too.
They were trying to nominate their democratic presidential candidate.
I didn't see much going on that resembled ANYTHING like what they
taught me democracy meant in school.
The people's candidate for the presidential nomination was a pig - a
real pig - aptly named "Pigasus." We felt that this noble creature
might model leadership standards that would represent a vast
improvement to political practices of that era. Today I think we did
the pig a disservice.
Those were bad old days. I remember growing up with the Vietnam war:
the carnage on the news every night, older kids in the working-class
neighborhood I grew up in would disappear and reappear briefly in
uniforms and crew cuts, then disappear again. Windows of the houses
on my street commonly displayed a small flag with a single blue star
in a field of white, and some would have black bunting draped over
them to let the neighbors know that their son wouldn't be returning.
And the sons who did return weren't the guys we knew before. As the
war dragged on, and as the war escalated, so did my belief that the
odds of reaching my twenty-first birthday were growing slimmer.
So there I was - I hadn't even shaved or kissed a girl yet, let alone
vote in an election - with all these other young folks in Chicago.
And one thing that we all agreed about was that we didn't want any
more of us to die in southeast Asia while the U.S. systematically
destroyed Vietnam and its people to "save" them from communism.
But the "military-industrial complex" had most of the politicians -
and many from the left - planted securely in their pockets. And Mayor
Daly's (Richie's dad) police did the bidding of their masters and
stomped the living crap out of us for having the audacity to suggest
that human lives were more important than General Electric's
third-quarter earnings. Hell, it seemed like everybody over thirty
was gravely offended that we would even think to exercise our freedom
to assemble, or our right to free speech. But we were there, we were
together, we had a different idea about how our country should be
run, and we were going to have our say.
It was the first time I had ever refused or resisted any adult
authority. I was rewarded with an opportunity to be chased by riot
cops across the park, and have Mace - which was a new product back
then - sprayed directly in my face from a distance of about three
feet by one of Chicago's finest. I had just called him a
motherfucker because he had split a pretty teenaged woman's head open
with a riot baton. I'd never seen anyone hurt another person like
that before. I hadn't been using the word (motherfucker) for very
long, and had only the most abstract concept of what it actually
meant, but I was certain this cop fit the label.
I drew the conclusion that what they taught me in school about how
the police were our friends was bullshit, too. Matter of fact, the
lesson was so powerful that I began to question everything any adult
told me from that day until today. I guess that was the day my
childhood ended.
As for Seattle, my heart is right there with every one of those
valiant people. Everyone has been crowding around my computer to see
all the news photos you posted. My favorite is the person smashing
Starbuck's window with the USA TODAY news rack. There was no small
amount of poetry present in that act. BRAVO!
>
>Whad dup wit da SF run-off Lection? Will the outcome make much difference?
Tom's campaign is going full-bore. We should have his position paper
on homelessness by early next week, which I'll post. We gave him
significant input for it, so it will be interesting to see how much
of that makes it into his document.
Yesterday's Matier and Ross piece in the CHRONICLE on the amount of
"soft money" supporting Brown's re-election bid is just another of
the reasons why I make it my job to stress the importance of
defeating the Brown democratic machine to everyone I meet.
I've been skimming some of the messages about the SF mayor's race
from others on this list, and I think I need to clear the air about
something.
Tom Ammiano isn't going to be the savior of homeless people here, but
he has agreed to approach the problem differently. Two things are
going to make a big difference: 1) that homeless people are going to
participate as real stakeholders in the design and evaluation of
programs and services that they use, and 2) as mayor, that Tom will
raise the level of debate from City Hall to the state and national
forums where some real progress can be made at restoring funding for
affordable housing.
And if he fucks us over, like Willie Brown did, he will learn, like
Brown did, that we are much, much better to count as friends than as
adversaries. He will also learn, like Brown did, that we will
advance the interests of homeless people with or without his consent
or approval because that's what the homeless people here want.
I do really hope Tom will remain the close ally he has been in our
battles with Willie Brown over homeless people's civil rights - not
because we're tired of fighting, not because we would be better
connected or have more political "juice," not because we're putting
our faith in him being some "homeless savior" or some other kind of
hero, but because lives are hanging in the balance. I think we know
Tom well enough to know that human life is important to him, maybe
even important enough for him to try make a difference.
>Thanks for your posts tonight, my brother. Is that all of them? More!
Yeah, it was a poetry issue. It sings. Adam, our new staff
attorney, made a linoleum print of an oak leaf with these words:
I have had occasion to dream of revolution. Sometimes as many as six
times before breakfast. Unarmed guerrilla activity bringing to ruin
towers of apathy, greed and hate. Amid the rubble, playing children
craft the future from bits of masonry, twigs and leaves.
Adam wishes he was in Seattle, too. I put his print on the cover of
the STREET SHEET as our tribute to the folks protesting the WTO.
I'll post more poems tonight.
Something else you might find amusing. Since the shopping cart
fiasco, we've raised funds, bought and distributed over two dozen
used shopping carts to homeless people here. Each cart bears a
small, but prominently displayed placard with these words:
COMMUNITY CART
This cart is for the use of any homeless person in the City and
County of San Francisco, and should be considered personal property.
This community cart is NOT stolen property or misappropriated lost
property. This cart's possessor is NOT subject to the penalties and
prohibitions of California Business and Professions Code section
22435 et seq. No City official is authorized to remove this cart.
You have rights - get involved!
Call the Coalition on Homelessness: 415.346.3740
>Peace 'n' Love. -- Tom, Mayyah of Hahvahd Squahah
>
Peace & Love to you, Harmonica Tom, and to all you other fine HPN listers.
Diamond Dave Whitaker sends his best, too.
peace,
ch@nce
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San Francisco, CA 94102
vox: (415) 346.3740
Fax: (415) 775.5639
coh@sfo.com
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