Streetvibes August 1-14, 2009 Edition

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Film Review

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August 1 - 14, 2009 • Advocating Justice, Building Community • Issue 158

Insane Budgeting Decisions Budget cuts imperil community mental health

By Eli Braun Contributing Writer

H

undreds of advocates rallied June 24 at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus to protest proposed budget cuts to community mental health and substance abuse services.

“Treatment works, people recover,” said their placards.

“Behavioral health care IS health care.”

But when Ohio lawmakers passed the 2010-2011 budget July 13 after weeks of negotiations, funding for community mental-health and addiction services took a substantial hit.

For fiscal year 2010, the Ohio Department of Mental Health lost nearly $78.5 million compared to 2009 funding levels. The Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services lost approximately $10 million. Funding levels for fiscal year 2011 are similar.

The cuts will primarily affect community-based men-

See Budget, p. 4

Advocates and clients rallied at the Ohio Statehouse for mental-health funding. Photo courtesy of Ohio Association of County Behavioral Health Authorities.

Art for Hard Times No New Deal but a reawakened solidarity

By Pat Clifford Contributing Writer

political art. Hazelwood is the curator of an exhibit called “Hobos to Street People: Artrowing unemployment, ists’ Responses to Homelesstent cities and foreclo- ness from the New Deal to sures ... One starts to wonder the Present,” on display at the if it is 1929, California Historical not 2009.

“It’s an ironic Society in Is it enough image to use, San Francisto make since what the co through you hum a shopping cart few bars of August 15. initially stood for “Brother, Can This exhibit was the basket of brings toYou Spare plenty, of American a Dime?” gether the abundance, even Some powork of visuper-abundance.” sual artists litically en- Art Hazelwood dealing with gaged artists poverty and believe it’s time to do a homelesswhole lot more. ness in the hopes of encouragCalifornia-based artist and ing this type of work now and printmaker Art Hazelwood in the future. thinks that the conditions deThis past year has seen a mand a resurgence of relevant, presidential administration

G

that professes a new era of federal responsibility.

Major programs to stimulate the economy and shore up the financial industry are being rolled out. Is this a new New Deal? Not quite.

Remember, the Third Street Corridor, 1998 by Christine Hanlon.

New Deal Photo courtesy of M. Lee Stone Fine Prints, San Jose, CA. not only inFair Labor Standards Act, and The new shopping cart cluded public works projects the National Labor Relations such as the Work Projects Ad- Act, which molded the busiThe old New Deal also culministration and the Civilian ness environment for years to tivated a cadre of significant Conservation Corps, but also come. artists. Starting in 1933 artists a host of legislation such as the Social Security Act, the See Art, p. 5

2

The Vibe

By The Numbers

4

the number of Florida cities that made the “Ten Meanest Cities” list (see page 8.)

85

the number of dollars per month it would cost to establish the Bill Cunningham Memorial Outhouse (see page 12.)

56

the percentage drop in federal funding for lowincome housing between 1976 and 2007 (see page 3.)

500

the cost, in dollars, of a plain burial box (see page 8.)

54

the Metacritic score for Brüno (see page 9.)

1997

the year Leonard Jackson started selling Streetvibes (see page 13.)

41

the code number that made Dmitri’s fellow Soviets think he’d been drinking (see page 6.)

1.3

million, the daily amount, in dollars, spent by the health industry to lobby Congress (see page 11.)

1933

the year the federal Public Works of Art Project began (see page 1.)

Streetwise

By Gregory Flannery Editor

Panhandling Discouraged, Pandering OK TV stations need ratings, and politicians need votes. This explains the flurry of attacks on poor and homeless people in various forums in Cincinnati in recent weeks. It started with a July 9 report on WKRC-TV (Channel 12) highlighting the fact that homeless people sleep outside the Hamilton County Courthouse and that, because the building is closed at night, they urinate and defecate on the courthouse grounds. By the tone of the coverage, you’d have thought some godless communist had strategically squatted over Old Glory and taken a dump.

News media are social animals, usually traveling in packs, and so five days later the Cincinnati Enquirer picked up on the theme set by Channel 12, saying, “Streams of urine runs from the walls down the cracks of the sidewalk.” Oh, the horror! That same day Bill Cunningham of WLW (700 AM), never one to miss an opportunity to stir an ugly mob, described the behavior of the homeless campers at the courthouse as “peeing on the symbol of justice.” (See “Justice, Toilets and Bill Cunningham,” page 12.)

Even County Commissioner David Pepper, often a source of reason in matters of complex social policy, couldn’t help himself, telling the Enquirer, “It’s clearly unacceptable for (the courthouse area) to be used this way. The building needs to be clean and safe and perceived that way.”

Never mind that safety was never an issue. Never mind that the building isn’t involved; it’s locked at night. What is worth noting is the fact that Pepper is positioning himself for election to statewide office next year.

Josh Spring, executive director of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, criticized Channel 12’s report and the ugly response it generated. Media reports casting courthouse employees and visitors as the victims of the publicly expressed bodily needs of the approximately three dozen people forced to sleep outside the courthouse utterly missed the point, he said.

“It is shameful that Channel 12 reported this story in this manner,” Spring said. “The victims in this situation are the 35 people who are forced to be homeless. The system has failed them, and they no longer have a place to call home.”

Why Not Work Together?

But one mustn’t generalize about politicians any more than any other group. It seems they can learn. Consider the case of Cincinnati City Councilman Jeff Berding, who made a splash July 15 with the noxious suggestion that panhandlers be forced to register with the city, pay earnings tax on their gleanings and carry signs advertising how much (as if it were a lot) that the city spends to help homeless people.

Berding was apparently ignorant of the fact that city council has already tried requiring panhandlers to carry city licenses, which it abandoned in 2007 in order to settle a lawsuit in federal court. (See “The Crime of Being Poor,” page 8.)

His proposal brought a swift response the next day from Gary Daniels, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio.

“The city simply cannot randomly force a person to display a sign of their choosing or prevent them from carrying their own sign,” he said. “In addition, charging a fee and requiring registration to panhandle will limit those who are unable to pay the fee or secure one of the limited number of available permits. The effect of this legislation would likely only exacerbate the plight of the homeless and silence this community further.”

Spring, executive director of the Homeless Coalition, convinced Berding to drop the proposal. They’ve agreed to cooperate to find ways to actually do something to eliminate the need for panhandling.

“I let Mr. Berding know that the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless will fight such a license to the end but is more than willing and is in fact eager to collaborate on real, lasting and homeless-ending solutions,” Spring said. “We discussed the need for more outreach workers to duplicate and multiply the success we have been experiencing, we discussed the placement of donation boxes with attached literature about what homelessness is, how we can solve it and make available resources for people who are homeless to pick up and use to get connected to solutions. The only way panhandling can end is if people no longer have a need to panhandle. We are making this happen for many and we can, through collaboration, make this happen for more and more people. In the end, GCCH will pull together a small team of people who do outreach and GCCH will lead a collaborative effort including both the outreach group and Mr. Berding to create lasting and positive change relative to panhandling for all involved in our city.”

STREETVIBES August 1 - 14, 2009 Streetvibes is an activist newspaper, advocating justice and building community. Streetvibes reports on economic issues, civil rights, the environment, the peace movement, spirituality and the struggle against homelessness and poverty.

Distributed by people who are or once were homeless, in exchange for a $1 donation, Streetvibes is published twice a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless.

Address: 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 Phone: 513.421.7803 x 12 Fax: 513.421.7813 Email: streetvibes2@ yahoo.com Website: www. cincihomeless.org Blog: streetvibes. wordpress.com

Streetvibes Staff Editor Gregory Flannery Art Director Lynne Ausman Contributing Writers Lew Moores, Margo Pierce, Paul Kopp, Jeremy Flannery, Michael Henson, David Heitfield, Alecia Lott, Larry Gross, Stephanie Dunlap, Georgine Getty, Angela Pancella, Paul Miller, Will Kirschner Photography/Artwork Andrew Anderson, Aimie Willhoite, Lynne Ausman Proofreaders Jennifer Blalock Ranjit Rege The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that works to eradicate homelessness in Cincinnati through coordination of services, public education, grassroots advocacy and Streetvibes.

We are members of:

STREETVIBES August 1 - 14, 2009

3

Column

Eight Minutes with a

Many people work hard to make a difference for the less privileged in the Queen City. “Eight Minutes” is an opportunity to learn who those people are and what motivates them to be a positive influence.

‘Nest Filler’ How one woman helps young adults pushed out of the nest too soon

By Margo Pierce Contributing Writer How many 18-year-olds do you know who, having graduated from high school, find an apartment, land a full-time job, get to work on time every day, pay their rent, keep their refrigerator stocked and have aspirations of going to college? How many stay off drugs and out of jail and do all of that alone, with no parent or guardian to help? Lea Drury knows quite a few young adults who accomplish all of this but they start out homeless before they accomplish all the rest.

A case manager for Lighthouse Youth Services, Drury works with homeless people aged 24 and younger.

“I’ve had a lot of clients that I have given resources and they have followed through … and managed to get themselves into an apartment,” she says.

“I’m just really there to guide them, give them resources.

Survival skills are also helpful … just knowing how to live from day-to-day, like knowing where the soup kitchens are … living in an abandoned building without any electricity, where are they going to go to get a flashlight?”

Referring to the determination, follow-through and timeliness as the “assets” that help young adults leave homelessness, Drury says the desire to succeed is what inspires them to accept assistance.

“By the time they come to me, they’re pretty determined to do it, to help themselves,” she says.

Drury meets a lot of her clients where they live - on the streets.

“We provide case management for anybody 18-24 that’s homeless and whatever falls into that category – people with mental health, chemical dependency, displaced or pushed out of the nest on their 18th birthday. Half of my week I spend on the streets doing outreach for the entire community, walking around handing out condoms, sandwiches, socks – just basic survival gear.”

After several casual conversations and building up some trust, Drury is able to learn

which kids are ready and able to move beyond merely surviving. There are many who need that assistance. The 2008 Homeless Management Information System Annual Data Report notes that 1,317 of the 8,372 registered homeless people in Cincinnati are 18-30 years old. Many young adults who are homeless are former foster children, left without help after turning 18.

“There are lots of people that are homeless (aged) 1824, absolutely,” Drury says.

“What I come across most frequently are people who were in state custody. People in state custody when they turn 18 or 19 … (are) released or terminated – they’re just kind of pushed out. The problem with that is young people have not learned self-sufficiency skills and don’t really know how to live independently. They’re released from state custody and end up in a shelter in a very short period of time.”

One key reason is a lack of available and affordable housing.

“One of the biggest problems that I have found is that it’s hard to get into housing,” Drury says. “It’s hard to get an 18- or 19-year-old into an apartment because a lot of landlords have had bad experiences with young people.

And low-income housing is challenging because a lot of the low-income people won’t even take anybody until they’re 21. There’s a very small amount of low-income housing that will take people under the age of 21 … (and) the waiting lists are so long.

“Because housing resources are so limited, and that’s usually the number one objective for the group that I work with, I say upfront, ‘Your options are I can put you on this waiting list and we can just sit and wait and hope that your name gets called eventually or you can be proactive about this and … if you’re willing to work, you can do this job-training program.’ This is very challenging when you don’t have a place to lay your head.”

The lack of housing isn’t surprising when taking into account how thoroughly the federal government has gutted housing assistance to those

Lea Drury, case manager at Lighthouse Youth Services. Photo by Lynne Ausman.

trapped in poverty. Federal funding for low-income housing fell 56 percent from 1976 to 2007, according to “Changing Laws, Changing Lives,” the 2007 Annual Report on Homelessness and Poverty by the National Law Center.

“In 1976, federal housing funding was $87 billion, and 435,362 new affordable units were built,” the report says.

“In 2007, funding had fallen to $38 billion, and zero new housing units were built.”

Drury lists the kinds of difficulties most people don’t consider when handing out the dismissive “get a job” advice so frequently dispensed by those who have no experience with homelessness: no alarm clock to make sure you get up on time; no place

to take a shower; no place to safely store clean clothes; no phone number with voicemail for potential employers to call to schedule an interview or a permanent address to use when filling out a W-2 once a job is offered.

A lack of resources is one of the biggest hurdles she faces.

“We need more shelter beds,” she says. “We need to be able to more quickly access mental-health services and chemical dependency services. The city could use another medical de-tox center other than Cathouse (the Center for Chemical Addictions Treatment).”

The Mental Health Access Point has a two- to three-week wait time for appointments.

“I have clients that need a

lot more help,” Drury says.

“Clients that have mentalhealth issues and maybe need to be in a group home or need to be in some sort of quick access program – I’m literally going everywhere with them until they’re stabilized.”

Those with less severe mental health concerns are referred to Centerpoint Health for therapy appointments, but those take two to three months to get.

Every person age 18-24 has challenges to overcome, and the systems in place to help them are also dealing with hurdles, but that’s not going to stop Drury.

“We need more, just more,” Drury says. “But I think it’s always going to be that way.”

Community News 4 Insane Budgeting (continued from page 1) tal-health services, as state psychiatric hospitals operate on a fixed budget. The community mental-health system covers supportive housing, medications, illness self-management, case management, counseling, diagnostic assessments, crisis intervention and crisis residential services. It provides treatment in less restrictive settings and at lower costs than psychiatric hospitals and emergency rooms.

The budget leaves just $183.7 million for community mental-health services after state hospitals take their cut.

That’s $23.3 million less than the $207 million in fiscal year 2009.

The budget totaled $50.5 billion, about $2 billion less than the previous biennial budget.

‘Brink of collapse’ Advocates, providers and people with mental illness emphasize that Ohioans with mental illness have a right to community-based mentalhealth treatment.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 10 years ago in Olmstead v. L.C. that mental illness is a protected disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act. In this historic pronouncement for civil rights, the court held that the unnecessary segregation and institutionalization of the mentally ill constitutes unlaw-

ful discrimination. It directed about human beings and famistates to develop strong com- lies that can have productive munity-based lives with the right mental-health health care. services to Significant cuts to complement These are community-based our family institutional mental-health members, placements services undermine neighbors for the menOhio’s obligation to and friends tally ill. support community who need In the help – days before integration, as they are the budget mandated by the the most passed, the Supreme Court. vulnerable Center for citizens.”

Community People Solutions, an Ohio advocacy and research who do not receive sufficient group, warned that cuts to the care in the community often community mental-health sys- show up in other systems. tem would leave many Ohio- Many land in jails, prisons, ans without access to treat- homeless shelters or other setment, with potentially dire tings less conducive to recovconsequences. Their report ery.

The criminal justice system was titled, “Proposed Funding Levels Push Community Men- has become the new asylum. tal Health System to Brink of A 2009 study in the journal Psychiatric Services found Collapse.”

Significant cuts to commu- that 14.5 percent of men and nity-based mental-health ser- 31 percent of women in lovices undermine Ohio’s obli- cal jails suffered from serious gation to support community mental illness. Those rates are integration, as mandated by three to six times higher than rates in the general populathe Supreme Court.

Health-care advocates tion. In Hamilton County in warned that cuts would come 2008, 40.1 percent of the adult homeless population were at a heavy price.

“Behavioral health care mentally ill, according to the has been historically under- Partnership Center.

“If we expect people to refunded in Ohio, but these proposed cuts would put lives in cover, we have to put in them danger,” said Cheri L. Walter, in a recovery environment,” CEO of the Ohio Association said Gloria Walker, chair of County Behavioral Health and acting director of Urban Authorities. “We are talking Greater Cincinnati Network

on Mental Illness, a chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. If communitybased services aren’t funded, she said, people will get sicker, and some will die.

Pay now or pay later Inadequate community funding will result in increased use of emergency rooms and hospitalization, both of which carry large price-tags. Ohio’s Coalition for Healthy Communities sent an open letter to Gov. Ted Strickland two weeks before the budget passed.

“Reducing funding to behavioral health services does not save taxpayer dollars,” the letter said. “In fact, the opposite is true. The choice is simple. Ohio can invest an average $7,400 per person on treatment for mental illness and $1,600 for addiction treatment at the community level.

Or we can spend $25,000 per adult and $79,000 per juvenile in our state correctional facilities, $1,600 per day on avoidable emergency room visits or $18,000 a year for every child in foster care. Or we can add to the list of avoidable deaths.”

Does the 2010-2011 budget meet our legal and societal obligations?

Fewer people will receive community-based mentalhealth care in the next two years. Without treatment, more people will end up homeless or in jail, marginalized for lit-

STREETVIBES August 1 - 14, 2009

tering, trespassing, loitering or other petty offenses that begin as symptoms of untreated mental illness.

In an essay – “Why Are So Many Americans in Prison?”

– economist and social critic Glenn Loury wrote, “When we hold a person responsible for his or her conduct – by establishing laws, investing in their enforcement, and consigning some persons to prisons – we need also to think about whether we have done our share in ensuring that each person faces a decent set of opportunities for a good life. We need to ask whether we as a society have fulfilled our collective responsibility to ensure fair conditions for each person.”

Budget allocations regarding community mental-health services have real-world impact in the lives of Ohioans.

Advocates like Susan, an Ohioan and parent of a mentally ill child (who asked that her last name be withheld) argue that neither homelessness nor criminal activity is inevitable.

“There is so much community outrage when a severely mentally ill person commits a crime,” she says, “but few resources to help them dayto-day so a crime doesn’t get committed.”

Healing a Nation How much is universal health care worth?

By Will Kirschner Contributing Writer Forty-six million people in the United States lacked health insurance as of 2007, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The 2008 Ohio Family Health Survey counted 1.3 million uninsured in this state. The numbers will have certainly risen with the current economic crisis and the increase in unemployment.

Almost everyone believes that there is a problem with the insurance system, and proposed solutions are myriad.

President Obama has brought the issue to the forefront with his plan to reform health care. His proposal includes an option for all people to get health care while allowing those who already have it to keep what they choose.

The plan wouldn’t tax people making less than $350,000 a

year. Families making over $1 million a year would pay a surcharge based on adjusted gross income, including capital gains and dividends. Some businesses would face additional taxes. A preliminary analysis by the Congressional Budget Office said Obama’s plan would cost more than $1 trillion over 10 years and reduce the number of uninsured by nearly 37 million.

Eight years ago six people met in a union office in Cleveland and formed the Single Payer Universal Health Care Organizing Committee, later changed to the Single Payer Action Network Ohio (SPAN Ohio).

The group’s objective is to have the state guarantee health care for all Ohioans, regardless of income. Unlike other plans, this system would get rid of all private health insurance and put the government

in charge – the “single payer.”

This system is more commonly known as universal health care.

‘Waited too long’ SPAN Ohio wants passage of the Health Care for All Ohioans Act, which would create a single payer system in Ohio, seeing it as a precedent for other states to follow. Historically, issues such as women’s suffrage and child labor laws began at the state level.

Carolyn Park, a member of the Cincinnati chapter of SPAN Ohio, believes this change should be immediate rather than gradual. But she says Obama’s plan is a step in the right direction.

Park says her experience in the health-care industry motivated her to join SPAN Ohio.

She worked as a pharmacy technician in Detroit. She is

now a paraprofessional in the one,” Rucknagel says.

Cincinnati Public Schools.

One of the biggest problems “I just saw the need that with the current system is that people have,” uninsured peoPark says. “I ple can’t get saw the probhealth care and SPAN Ohio lems they had they end up in believes with paying for the emergency switching their prescriproom, he says. to a single tions and all “By the time health-care the problems many people bureaucracy that go along go to the emerwill lower the with health gency room money spent care, the high or see about a on the complex prices.” situation, they bureaucracy of Retired Dr. have waited health care.

Don Rucknatoo long,” he gel has been says. “When it in the medical is caught at an field since 1952. An emeritus earlier stage, there could have professor of pediatrics and in- been a much better outcome at ternal medicine at Children’s a much better price, and that’s Hospital of Cincinnati, he is a what preventative medicine is member of SPAN Ohio’s ex- all about.” ecutive board.

Rucknagel has a good ex“It has always incensed me ample of how having so many that the richest nation cannot uninsured harms the system. pay for health care for every-

See Healing, p. 7

STREETVIBES August 1 - 14, 2009

Art Review

Art for Hard Times

5

(continued from page 1)

Breadline, 1935 by Iver Rose.

Photo courtesy of M. Lee Stone Fine Prints, San Jose, Calf.

were employed by the Public Works of Art Project. This effort was eventually subsumed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to engage artists in printmaking, public murals and documentary photography. Many artists rose to prominence in this era, including Dorthea Lange and Walker Evans. Unfortunately for the Tri-State, 80 percent of WPA art commissions in Ohio went to the Cleveland area. The most prominent in Cincinnati are the murals in Lunken Airport by William Harry Gothard.

But the WPA was not just about employing artists, of course. It was also about molding public opinion in support of the New Deal.

“Roosevelt and those running the WPA were trying to get public support behind the New Deal to justify all they were building,” says Paul Boden, director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project.

Political art is increasingly important, according to Hazelwood.

“It brings a message and speaks to people who are in the struggle,” he says.

“An image can be powerful in giving support to those people. That is no small thing in itself.”

Many of the works included in the exhibit are posters meant to be used in organizing campaigns. These are important tools, Boden says.

“That’s what people put on their wall,” he says.

Even so, artists sometimes lapse into caricature or stereotype when they are trying to represent a class of people. When it comes to homeless people, that often means tragic or “pathetic” images meant to pull on the viewer’s heartstrings.

“I think this partly is due to lack of a political framework for the artists to work in,” Hazelwood says. “They don’t really know the issues. In many cases, homelessness is an issue that has not been connected to the mainstream left movements. Artists don’t know how to think about it, so they go for the easy pathos, which is what people see thrown at them from the aid agencies. Empowerment is a difficult image to portray unless you know the issues.”

This becomes problematic for Boden.

“You’re not going to hire bums and yokels to build your public school or pay them prevailing wage,” he says. “It’s hard to do that if you’re defining everyone who’s homeless as chronically dysfunctional.”

Hazelwood notes that one recurring image in the exhibit is that of a shopping cart.

“It’s an ironic image to use, since what the shopping cart initially stood for was the basket of plenty, of American abundance, even super-abundance,” he says.

This image of abundance is turned on its head, providing a critique to the type of society that leaves large numbers of its citizens living on the street.

al government nowadays.

“Government has gotten out of the business “Artists today are more altogether,” Hazelwood likely to take an activist role says. “The artists emagainst the government’s ployed by different fedlack of action. Artists who eral agencies in the Dedo get involved are often pression served different connected through homeless functions but they were rights organizations.” - Art employed, and that did Hazelwood two things. It gave them solidarity, and it allowed them to look to the government programs in a positive light.”

This solidarity must be formed in other ways.

“Now artists are divided from each other by competition, from solidarity with issues of poverty, in many cases by wealth, and from any sense that the government is helping by the reality of the lack of government action,” Hazelwood says. “As a result, artists today are more likely to take an activist role against the government’s lack of action. Artists who do get involved are often connected through homeless rights organizations.”

Despite these difficulties, Boden feels an urgent need to connect serious artists to the struggle for economic equality.

“We need to start identifying issues and give those messages to serious artists,” he says. “When the artwork is serious, it’s amazing how much it resonates.”

Although more related to street art than to the legacy of the New Deal, Shepard Fairey’s iconic poster of Barack Obama effectively joined contemporary art to a political program at the highest levels.

However, those who are being portrayed must be the ones to frame the debate.

One might wonder, with all the baggage the term “homeless” implies, is it time to reconsider the term itself? Just as the term “hobo” has become antiquated, in the future will the term “homeless” mark the poverty of a particular historic moment?

“I believe that terms of identification have to come from the people they refer to,” Hazelwood says. “If people who are homeless feel the need to choose a name that describes them in a more empowering way, that is great. Taking ownership of your name is important.”

The new Okies Though the spending associated with World War II is widely credited with lifting the country out of the Great Depression, the New Deal programs provided a safety net for the poor. This safety net was gradually dismantled throughout the past two decades. Boden has fought this roll back, committing over 20 years of his life to activism on behalf of the poor and homeless.

“A couple of years ago we celebrated the 75th anniversary of the New Deal,” he says. “Back then the issue was with the aggressive anti-Okie laws. You know: ‘If you’re looking for a job, don’t stop here.’ Now we would call them ‘antihomeless’ laws.”

Is there a current generation of new New Deal artists working hard to document inequality and promote systemic change? One shouldn’t look to the feder-

Brother Can You Spare A Dime, 1933/36 by Albert Potter.

Photo courtesy of M. Lee Stone Fine Prints, San Jose, Calif.

Issues 6 Warm Beer and Cold War

STREETVIBES August 1 - 14, 2009

In South Korea, exploitation was a way of life for U.S. military

By David Heitfield Contributing Writer

“LBJ,” after our 36th presi- shoes shined and uniforms dent: “One toke, and you go pressed and hung – six days on welfare state.” One of my a week. My houseboy would [Editor's note: This is the favorite idioms expressed a maybe once a month ask me second part of a series in which long passage for a favor – the author recalls his experi- of time as milk or cigaClinton is a ences as a Korean linguist in “when the tirettes usually. “funny lady” who the U.S. Navy 30 years ago, ger smoked Otherwise, is “by no means in an attempt to address the cigarettes.” he was a pro, intelligent,” conservative White Guilt that as reliable as W h e n according to a results in the need to cease- drinking with mallard rape.

North Korean lessly Support Our Troops, a group of The bars spokesperson last even though they mostly have Koreans, we were segreweek. “Sometimes no idea who these troops are would order gated by race she looks like a or what they are doing.] and were filled several botprimary schoolgirl I never thought I'd say this, tles of beer with “busiand sometimes a but Secretary of State Hillary at a time for ness women” pensioner going Clinton and I share something each person.

– they would shopping.” in common: We've both been When I menget really mad called names by the North Ko- tioned that if you called reans. them prostisaid custom Clinton is a “funny lady” resulted in drinking a lot of tutes – who were not just trywho is “by no means intel- warm beer, I was told, “Yes, it ing to sell nightly fun, but most ligent,” according to a North is a stupid custom, but it is our were hoping to land a “yobo.”

Korean spokesperson last custom, and do you know of A yobo would live with you at week. “Sometimes she looks any customs that are not stu- rack rates starting around $200 like a primary schoolgirl and pid?” You could call someone monthly and upwards. Many sometimes a pensioner going a sonovabitch, a number 10 marriages started with yobo shopping.” sonovabitch, or a number 18 relationships. The bar segreNow, before you reach an sonofabitch, but if you called gation assisted the business epiphany that the North Ko- someone, say, a number 15 woman who wanted to make rean News Agency works in sonovabitch, you'd be laughed a little extra money when her concert with Rush Limbaugh at for being illiterate. The yobo went on a deployment: and the Republican National ultimate bar-fighting insult If she found her yobo in a Committee, you should know roughly translated to “your white bar, she'd hit the black that the People’s Republic of mother has 100 pubic hairs.” bars; and vice versa. Since the Korea likes to insult all Amersegregation extended to most icans, not just the liberals. social relationships as well as Love and other American values Some of my recent favorites: the bar, there was little chance President George Bush was of the yobo getting caught.

When I think of my time in “a hooligan bereft of any perThe business women were sonality of a human being” and the country, I often think of memorable not just because of “a half-baked man in terms of how we were often awakened the pathetic situation in which morality” who looks like “a in the morning by a ringing we were of course complicit chicken soaked in the rain.” bell, which meant there was – heck, they could be thrown Vice President Dick Cheney animal fornication going on. in jail if they were found to be was “a mentally deranged “Duck fuck! Duck fuck!” Mr. skipping out on their weekly person” who was “hated as the Han would scream, laugh- required checks for venereal most cruel monster and blood- ing and getting his little bar disease – but because of their thirsty beast as he drenched area ready for the day if any- hard sell. At least, that's what various parts of the world in one wanted to start eating or I'll never forget. “American women are all blood.” Secselfish and only retary of DeA college woman I befriended from think of themfense Donald Yonsei University (who would never selves. Korean Rumsfeld dare date an American) told me it’s a woman will take was “a pogood idea to marry a Korean business good care of you; litical dwarf, woman, because even if she’s a American womhuman scum drug-addled alcoholic who slept with an will cheat on or hysteric” thousands of men, that’s still better you and cry and and a “huthan what any self-absorbed American scream and take man butcher female has to offer. all your money.” and fascist This was a line tyrant who you heard from puts an ogre drinking or playing cards. Mr. every Korean business womto shame.”

While stationed at Camp Han had one of the better jobs an, even the ones who were Humphreys in a small base on base – I think we paid him not directly involved in the sex town about an hour south of around $50 a week, plus gen- trade. Even a college woman I befriended from Yonsei UniSeoul called Anjong-ni, just erous tips.

By contrast, my houseboy versity (who would never dare outside Pyongtaek, I soon became impressed that Korean worked for $20 a month and date an American) told me it's people were hard-working, a little black market action. a good idea to marry a Korekind, and had a rather wick- (Of course, he had several an business woman, because ed sense of humor, which I clients, so he did make more even if she's a drug-addled presumed was built through than $100 a month for his la- alcoholic who slept with thou5,000 years of mostly being bor.) What did you get for $20 sands of men, that's still better conquered by other nations. a month? Your living quarters than what any self-absorbed When one Korean described were cleaned, your laundry American female has to offer. some good pot, he called it done and folded away, your

A group of construction workers walk away after paying their respects to a statue of Kim Il-Sung in Pyongyang. Photo by REUTERS/Reinhard Kraus.

The big ROK candy mountain

how Americans had broken up families during the war and continued to keep them apart.

I spent a month on the DMZ Just learning about North Korea was itself a lesson on a “goodwill mission” with in the Cold War. The Great the Republic of Korea (ROK) Leader Kim Il-Sung, father of Army when one of the loudspeakers identithe current dying fied me, and it Dear Leader Kim Five-yearwas damn scary.

Jong-Il, was heold children There have been a roically revered were armed number of people to an extent simand learned killed on the DMZ ply unimaginable to recite since the end of the to most people. the antiwar in 1953, perStories of his exAmerican haps the most grizploits during the catechism. zly being the “Axe Korean War were Murder Incident” fantastical, and in 1976, when two museums were Americans were axed to death dedicated to the atrocities of Americans during the war. after trying to chop down a Five-year-old children were poplar tree that was obstructarmed and learned to recite the ing a checkpoint.

The complexities of the anti-American catechism. The newspapers had front-page relationship between Amerinews only about the Great can servicemen and Koreans Leader getting congratulations is too deep to adequately defrom one world leader or an- scribe in this article. For inother. If the newspaper carried stance, the Kwangju Incident, a picture of the Great Leader, in which a 2007 movie, May it was against the law to throw 18, recounts, took place in the paper away – you had to 1980. Initially, students protesting the closing of Chonburn it, like a tattered flag.

In a country of limited food nam University were attacked and transportation, the first by the military using bayotwo cars of each commuter nets, and over the next several train would be filled daily with days some 100,000 Koreans fresh flowers adorning a large came out to protest. The army portrait of the Great Leader. used paratroopers, machine There were loudspeakers guns and, as some witnesses on the demilitarized zone said, tanks to quell the unrest, (DMZ), continually broad- and civilians formed militias casting propaganda messages and got their own machine to South Korean troops about

See Beer, p. 7

STREETVIBES August 1 - 14, 2009

Healing a Nation “Say a person has a strep throat and they start worrying,” he says. “Well, they don’t have a doctor to go to, so they go to the emergency room. Just checking yourself in an emergency room can cost $500 before a doctor or nurse even lays an eyeball on you.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposes any steps toward more government involvement in health care. It argues, as do most groups, that the insurance system needs to be restructured to eliminate unnecessary spending.

The American Medical Association estimates that waste due to inefficient health-care claims processing, payment and reconciliation could be anywhere from $21 billion to $210 billion.

SPAN Ohio believes switching to a single health-care bureaucracy will lower the money spent on the complex bureaucracy of health care.

Although retired, Rucknagel still spends one day a week working at the Adult Sickle Cell Center at University Hospital. He often has to spend upwards of an hour

(continued from page 4)

on the phone with insurance companies explaining the necessity of a more expensive medication compared to a cheaper, less effective alternative, he says.

‘Take your pick’ The biggest question in health-care reform is where the money will come from.

SPAN Ohio’s plan includes an income-tax increase of 6.2 percent for people making over $94,200 a year. People making over $200,000 would pay an additional five percent of their gross income. A tax on business would cost 3 percent of gross receipts and up to 3.85 percent on payrolls.

Opponents of various proposals object to the way the taxation is set up.

“We believe that marketdriven health reforms are the best approach to reducing costs, promoting efficiency, wellness, and quality of care,” says a U.S. Chamber of Commerce statement on the health care plan pending in the U.S. Senate. “Using convoluted subsidies, employer mandates and legal structures to force

Warm Beer and Cold War (continued from page 6) guns to fight the army. The “official” casualty toll was 144 civilians, four police and 22 army troops. The movie put the casualty toll at 207 deaths, almost 2,400 wounded and nearly 1,000 missing, although it says those numbers are also in dispute and could be higher.

The popular theory was that the South Korean government had an agreement with U.S. forces that they could not move nor fire upon anyone without the express consent of the U.S. Command. Hence, we Americans were ultimately to blame for the massacre. It was later confirmed that the United States had authorized the retaking of Kwangju by the South Korean Army to restore order, but who authorized the first order to fire on and beat civilians is still unanswered.

Anyway, a fellow sailor and I were going to spend a month on this mountain with the ROK Army to help them with their English, while we worked on our conversational Korean. (Needless to say, their English was far better

7

Local News

than our Korean.) When we first arrived, a young officer started kicking the shit out of everything in a show of force, demanding our unquestioned obedience in all things. My partner freaked out over this; I was pretty confident the officer was smart enough to know that laying a finger on an American meant the end of his career. Still, I recall making radio contact with some people in Seoul that night, and the next day the lieutenant was our bestest buddy, and stayed that way for the next month, although he made no secret of the fact he hated us.

For a month we slept in an open barracks with no privacy, ate our daily ration of fish head soup (it is just what you think it is), kimchee and rice; and then the North Koreans, having obviously spotted at least one of the Americans, started calling us names over the loudspeakers at night: “You have an American bastard among you!

He rapes your sister! Kill him in his sleep!”

So you see, Hillary got off easy.

Carolyn Park, member of Cincinnati chapter of SPAN Ohio. Photo by Andrew Anderson.

people into a connector and then into a public governmentrun plan fails to tackle the underlying challenge of controlling costs, improving care and expanding coverage.”

Some people are afraid of more government involvement in something as personal as health care, but Rucknagel sees it as a clear choice.

“So there are two institutions you can trust: insurance agencies or the government,”

he says. “Take your pick.”

A press release by U.S. Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-Cincinnati) calls for a middle path.

“In addition to expanding access and reducing costs for families, I believe any meaningful reform must ensure that patients cannot be denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions and that individuals won’t have to worry about losing coverage if they change jobs,” the statement says. “At

the same time we need to ensure that protections are put in place so that small businesses are not unduly burdened by the costs of reform efforts.”

Almost everyone agrees that the system in place now is ineffective.

“What we have now is not working,” Park says. “People are hurting, people are suffering and people are dying.”

Local News 8 Death on the Cheap

STREETVIBES August 1 - 14, 2009

Burial doesn’t have to cost so much

By Larry Gross Contributing Writer

where an old lady in Costco has a casket in her cart and she’s pushing it through the When you walk by 722 store. They made a funny out Main St. downtown and look of it, but it stuck in my head.” in the showLusain room winwent online, dow, you’re r esearched An Internet going to see Costco and search turned up something saw that it a casket store in you don’t sells caskets, Indianapolis that see every but they have day: caskets to be shipped. had the same for sale.

He didn’t casket he wanted, “Initially, want to pay and it was $1,300 I was gowithout seecheaper than ing to have ing the casket buying from the a wall here first. An Infuneral home. in front and ternet search have a showturned up a room in the casket store back where people could see in Indianapolis that had the them,” says Eric Lusain, own- same casket he wanted, and it er of Main St. Casket Co., “but was $1,300 cheaper than buysomeone said, ‘No, you need ing from the funeral home. to put them in the window so Lusain started researching when people see them, they’ll the Federal Trade Commisremember.’ ” sion’s regulations on the sale Lusain also wants you to of caskets, which led him to remember the price of his dis- open his store in Cincinnati. counted caskets. You can save “The FTC had to start reguup to 80 percent off the prices lating the business because at most funeral homes. funeral homes were price“Nowadays with things be- fixing them along with the ing as tight as they are, people casket companies,” he says. are thinking twice,” he says.

“People can buy their caskets Lusain discovered the high somewhere else, the register cost of burial last year in In- book somewhere else and also dianapolis. the flowers. People think you “Back in September, we have to get them from the fuhad a loved one who passed,” neral home. You don’t.” he says. “We were responThe FTC regulation, issued sible for the burial, and we in 1982, has become known as had to pay out-of-pocket. I the “Funeral Rule.” Most funever buried anybody before, neral directors don’t educate and we got sticker shock. I their customers on the subject, had no idea that it would cost but some consumers are catchthat much. I tried to figure out ing on, according to Lusain. ways to shave the price down.

“I’ve had one funeral home I remembered some movie call me and say, ‘Why are you

Eric Lusain, owner of Main St. Casket Co. in downtown Cincinnati. Photo by Andrew Anderson.

taking money out of my pocket?’ ” he says.

His store has been open for more than six months, but Lusain had to wait for one of his tenants, a clothing retailer, to move.

“Before the store opened, we were warehousing (caskets) in the back,” he says.

“People would pull up in the alley and take a look at them.

We were selling them back there. It just didn’t feel right.”

Lusain says business is good. His most popular casket is the Neapolitan Blue. It has a navy blue finish with light blue velvet interior in a French fold design. This casket, which also features an adjustable bed, goes for $999. At a funeral home, you’ll pay at least $3,050.

Another popular casket is the Going Home Blue, which has a light blue crepe interior.

At a funeral home, you’ll pay an average $2,635. At Main Street Casket Co., it’s yours for $799.

Most of Lusain’s caskets are imported.

“What a lot of people don’t know is some big casket companies that are domestic are now made in Mexico,” he says. “There’s not a lot that’s truly domestic these days.”

Most of Lusain’s caskets start at $999, including delivery to a funeral home. If you need to go cheaper, he’s also got boxes for $500 or even less.

“Funeral homes carry them,” Lusain says, “but they won’t tell you unless you ask.”

He also sells vaults that start at $499 and also offers pet caskets that start at $199.

If cremation is your thing, you can pick up an urn for $135.

Lusain says he doesn’t “store” caskets until the time of need, but does offer a preplan set-up with a contract. He says he’s never had a customer who wanted to try one on for size, but you don’t need a dead body to buy a casket.

“It’s merchandise,” Lusain says. “It’s not against the law.

A guy had cash, his own truck, came in, got the casket and we’re wheeling it down the street, sticking it in his truck.

The guy actually had a 1961 hearse he was restoring, and he wanted to put a casket in it.”

Most of Lusain’s customers have lost loved ones but he says he doesn’t see a lot of tears in his store.

“When families come in here, they’re not grieving,” he says. “They’re excited.

They’re saving at least two grand.”

The Crime of Being Poor Discrimination against homeless people is the American way

By Gregory Flannery Editor Laws that punish people for being Mormon, lesbian, African-American or deaf would

never stand in the United States. But laws that punish people for being poor proliferate.

“Homes Not Handcuffs” is the ninth report on the criminalization of homelessness by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty. The report documents ordinances in cities across the country that make it a crime to do things that people do precisely because they are poor: panhandling, sleeping on benches and under bridges,

! ? t a h W y a

relieving themselves in public. Based on research in 273 cities, the report decries the use of jail cells as housing for the poor.

“Even though most cities do not provide enough affordable housing, shelter space and food to meet the need, many cities use the criminal justice system to punish people living on the street for doing things that they need to do to survive,” the report says.

“Such measures often prohibit activities such as sleeping/

camping, eating, sitting and/or begging in public spaces and include criminal penalties for violation of these laws. Some cities have even enacted foodsharing restrictions that punish groups and individuals for serving homeless people.

Many of these measures appear to have the purpose of moving homeless people out of sight or even out of a given city.”

The Cincinnati Park Board, for example, restricts the distribution of food to poor

people in Washington Park in Over-the-Rhine. Churches and groups such as Food Not Bombs sometimes flout the rule and sometimes sidestep it by setting up food stations on sidewalks near the park.

A few years ago the criminalization report named Cincinnati the Sixth Meanest City to Homeless People. Cincinnati didn’t make the cut this year. These days sunny climes seem to be especially mean to

See Crime, p. 9

Words sing. They hurt. They teach. They sanctify.

They were man’s first immeasurable feat of magic.

They liberated us from ignorance and our barbarous past. ~ Leo Rosten

S _____________________

STREETVIBES August 1 - 14, 2009

9

Movie Review

Getting Famoüs We have met ‘Brüno,’ and he is us

By David Heitfield Contributing Writer

girl to California. Brüno takes the same mockumentary style, without the making-adocumentary conceit, and the result is disorienting. At the very least, you are a voyeur; more likely, you are a co-con-

mistake to be made in Bruno: We have met the enemy, and it is us.

The scene from Brüno that There's nothing subtle lingers with me – and how about it. Early in the movie, “staged” it was is irrelevant Brüno sets out on his quest – is not the talking penis, nor to “be famous” by setting up the swingers' club a focus group meeting where to view his new The amazing thing about the movie Brüno is repeatshow idea on Dedly slashed by list celebrities. is that, given the focus group and a female domiYou see what the the reaction of other people in natrix, nor the focus group sees the film, Cohen and Charles had near-riot caused – hell, you are to know this movie was probably by caged manthe focus group gonna bomb, and yet they made it on-man action in – and Cohen, anyway, and the distributors spent a front of a crowd quite literally, is that loves its hetshaking his dick huge amount of money promoting it. erosex. No, it's in your face. the scene of Paula Just as the focus Abdul mindlessly sitting on a spirator. group responds with disgust Mexican laborer as he is on all I've talked to people who – and they're only watchfours to provide her a “chair” refuse to even watch Borat ing it on a small television, in the absence of furniture. because “it just makes fun whereas you are watching it As she sits atop this poor of rednecks,” (pity the poor on a large movie screen – so man's back, Abdul earnestly Republican, who must look has been the reaction of many talks about how she “eats and to Ann Coulter and Larry the audience members and critbreathes” to help and be of Cable Guy for his humor) and ics. I was fully one-fourth of service to others. it turns out many people who the audience for the screening In one respect, Brüno is a like the movie agree with that I watched, and the Metacritic corrective to Sacha Baron Co- sentiment, as if Cohen and di- score for Brüno is a dismal 54, hen's 2006 Borat: the earlier rector Larry Charles decided compared to Borat's score of movie allowed the audience to make fun of the racism and 89. to keep some distance, watch- bigotry of the South. I saw While I agree Borat is the ing Borat make his documen- the satire as much more broad better movie, nothing in Borat tary while chasing his dream than that, but there's no such really surprised me, mostly

because being a white male, I've seen and heard much of the overt racism and bigotry that movie took to its core (and

no, it's not just in the South).

Watching Brüno evoked far

See Famous, p. 11

The Crime of Being Poor (continued from page 8) homeless people, with Florida and California dominating this year’s 10 Meanest Cities: Los Angeles, Calif.; St. Petersburg, Fla.; Orlando, Fla.; Atlanta, Ga.; Gainesville, Fla.; Kalamazoo, Mich.; San Francisco, Calif.; Honolulu, Hawaii; Bradenton, Fla.; and Berkeley, Calif.

Cincinnati did, however, earn mention for the settlement of a four-year legal battle over an ordinance requiring panhandlers to obtain licenses and for a legal challenge to state laws that prohibited a homeless sex offender from staying at the Drop Inn Center because of its proximity to a school. The case was eventually dropped because the man left the area, the report says.

Because of state law, the Drop Inn Center still cannot give shelter to sex offenders, no matter how cold it is outside or how hungry they are.

Thirteen cities have installed meters that resemble parking meters to accept money that people would otherwise give panhandlers. The proceeds go to agencies that help homeless people. While better than laws restricting panhandling, the

meters are still a probtry, the response by city lem, the report says. officials has been re“If meter programs pression. are combined with “Since early 2007, St. campaigns telling peoPetersburg has passed ple not to give to people six new ordinances that asking for money, they target homeless people,” can have a detrimenthe report says. “These tal impact on people include ordinances who are in dire need that outlaw panhanof assistance and can dling throughout most discourage the human of downtown, prohibit connection that occurs the storage of personal when one person gives belongings on public to another person in property and make it need,” the report says. unlawful to sleep out“Finally, the amount side at various locaof money raised by tions. In January 2007, the meters may not be the Pinellas-Pasco Pubsignificant enough to lic Defender announced make an actual impact that he would no longer on the larger issue of represent indigent peopoverty in any given ple arrested for violating community. municipal ordinances to The report details the protest what he called Some cities repurpose old parking increase in homelessexcessive arrests of ness across the country meters so that potential givers can give to homeless individuals services instead of panhandlers. as a result of the Bush by the city of St. PetersRecession: burg.” ing in shelters rose by • Some 311,000 tenants • 33 percent in the past year.

The report also highlights nationwide were evicted • Cities surveyed for the re- constructive responses by a from rental properties in port experienced an aver- handful of cities in the United the past year after lenders age 12 percent increase in States. foreclosed.

• The city of Daytona Beach, homelessness.

• Massachusetts reports that Fla., worked with service In many parts of the counthe number of families livproviders and business

groups to set up a program that provides homeless people with jobs and housing. Participants are hired to clean up downtown and receive shelter.

• The city of Cleveland contracted with the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless to provide an indoor food-sharing site to groups that wish to use it.

• The city of Portland, Ore., began “A Key Not a Card,” with outreach workers able to immediately offer people living on the street permanent housing.

That kind of response points to the report’s chief recommendation: “Instead of criminalizing homelessness, local governments, business groups and law-enforcement officials should work with homeless people, providers and advocates for solutions to prevent and end homelessness,” the report says. “When cities work with homeless persons and advocate for solutions to homelessness, instead of punishing those who are homeless or poor, everyone benefits.”

Poetry 10 Only the Deaf Want to Listen

STREETVIBES August 1 - 14, 2009

The poetry of Daniel Thompson

By Michael Henson Contributing Writer It’s hard to imagine Cincinnati – or any other city I know of – honoring a poet like Daniel Thompson. It’s hard to imagine a city honoring a poet at all.

But in Cleveland, there is a downtown street renamed for a poet who spent his life as an advocate for the homeless and the poor.

It’s a short street. It’s not like they’re going to give up the naming rights to an interstate highway to a mere poet. But it’s a street, a real paved street: Daniel’s Way. And they even have a plaque installed on a wall to explain who Daniel was.

In Cincinnati, the people who get to give names to streets would just as soon have the poets go away. Say what you want about Cleveland, but they have at least some of their priorities right.

I first encountered the poetry of Daniel Thompson this year in May. The poet and singer Bree Zlee and the poet/publisher/bookseller Charles Potts had put together a weekend of poetry events, and I was along for the ride. This particular

part of the ride took us downtown to the spot where the plaque had been installed on the street known as Daniel’s Way. May in Cleveland is not the same as May in Cincinnati, and I did not go dressed for the cold. So I shivered in a small circle of about a dozen as we read the poems of – and poems dedicated to – Daniel.

Then and there I became a fan of the poetry of Daniel Thompson.

Daniel was an activist for the homeless and the poor in the city of Cleveland who eventually became poet laureate of Cuyahoga County. He never published a book, but several collections of his work are floating around, including a special edition of The Homeless Grapevine, the Cleveland version of Streetvibes.

Daniel seems incapable of writing a bad poem. He hits on old themes (there are, after all, no new themes), but in his work, everything is fresh, everything is sharp and clear, everything reflects in sharp detail the cruel ironies of poverty in a land of wealth. At no time does he resort to stereotype or cliché. There is no ranting, no flat ideological droning.

There is only clarity of language and relentless compassion.

Here are a few samples:

Again

A New Beatitude Walking to starlight in a dark season, I hear a new beatitude, America.

Listen, Blessed are the homeless, for they shall inherit the street, the sidewalk, the bushes, the cold, cold ground, whatever falls from heaven, pennies of rain, of snow, any spare change of weather, day-old manna, the donut and the hole in the donut, the hole in the sock, in the sole of the shoe, and in the cold, cold ground, and, O, I almost forgot, America, this, too, from you, the cold eye of the stranger…

you’re returning to the haunts of the lonely, the broken, on the childhood side of town.

Read the signs: IGNORE ALIEN ORDERS ROAD NARROWS Till another deserves one good turn, forgetting nothing, exit on the off chance you may leap from your car in ecstasy, hunger after light, divine for water, turning over the heart’s new leaf to the dark music inside, night coming on quickly.

Listen: If you were homeless you’d be home now.

News From Home The dogs have turned wild… since you’ve gone, the moon, blue; and my heart in Hell has frozen over…It’s Heaven.

Your work is cut out for you when you return…

All your calls have stopped…save the mimes; and they’re good.

You can’t hear them breathe.

Otherwise everything’s business as usual.

Only the blind want to read your poems;

Only the deaf want to listen.

Many thanks to Christopher Franke, a friend and poetic colleague of Daniel who shared these poems with me.

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Vendors wear their WHITE badges while they sell the paper.

STREETVIBES August 1 - 14, 2009

11

Editorial

The Struggle for National Health care – and Steve Driehaus We must act while we have the momentum

By Martha Stephens Contributing Writer

ter, for government help on the premiums – to private insurance – of people losing their jobs. No mention, though, of Driehaus’s positions on President Obama’s health plan, with its public option.

And this is exactly the point, it seems – the ad’s lack of reference to the bills being debated in Congress and the public option. It is made to look like a campaign ad from

himself, perhaps: “Hey! We’re telling people that everybody admires your work on healthHomeless people need nacare! We admire you and will tional health care – that's for stick by you. You don’t need sure. Sick and disabled people to back a controversial bill need it. Low-income people with a public option that atneed it. In reality, we all need tacks our industry.” it – birth to grave care, that is, A recent report has calcufrom doctors and hospitals of lated that $1.3 million a day our choosing, government to is spent on lobbying Congress pay the bills, those who can to by the health industry. pay a premium or a health tax, For the first time in our hisas in other countries, tory, Ameribut according to incans are seecome. No connecing a vital and We might be on the verge of getting tion to employment. vociferous genuine reform through a strong We might be on grassroots public option in health care, where the verge of getstruggle for everyone could choose between a ting genuine reform a national Medicare-like public program and through a strong health service. private insurance. public option in A recent poll health care, where by the New everyone could York Times choose between a Medicare- Driehaus, but if you turn it and CBS found that 72 percent like public program and pri- over, the fine print on the back of Americans now believe that vate insurance. page says this: “Paid for by everyone who wants it should In the meantime the battle Pharmaceutical Research and have government insurance of with private insurance goes Manufacturers of America.” the Medicare type. We hear on. In mid-July a strange Driehaus’s offices in Cin- less and less about the dangers four-page ad on health care cinnati and Washington say of “socialized medicine.” appeared in Cincinnati mail- he had nothing to do with this But we must watch with boxes. This glossy, fold-up flier and did not know it was fierce concentration the votes brochure, full of the happy appearing. of our representatives on the faces of kids and families, Is it a dirty trick, then, bills in Congress, including mostly African-Americans, by the pharmaceutical asso- Driehaus’s votes. It was an featured Cincinnatian Steve ciation? So it seems, and we intrepid Driehaus, of course, Driehaus. hope Driehaus will publicly who slew the dragon on the “Congressman Steve Drie- renounce this ad. Deceiving west side of town last year – haus,” the ad says, “wants fliers such as this one have Steve Chabot, a Republican every Ohio child to grow up gone out, we assume, in select in the U. S. House who had healthy and happy.” It de- districts across the country, voted over 90 percent of the scribes Driehaus’s support for wherever it is felt that politi- time with George W. Bush. the expanded kids’ care pro- cians can be pressed into ser- Driehaus received a lot of gram, for Children's Hospital vice for private insurance. The help from progressive and and the Veterans Affairs Cen- real message is for Driehaus disaffected people in his dis-

Getting Famoüs more personal reactions. For instance, in one scene where Brüno talks to his agent while getting an anal bleaching, I found my rube mind thinking to itself, “Really? They have stores in LA that specialize in anal bleaching? My God, we've gone to hell.”

The amazing thing about the movie is that, given the focus group and the reaction of other people in the film, Cohen and Charles had to know this movie was probably gonna bomb, and yet they made it anyway, and the distributors spent a huge amount of money promoting it. That takes some guts, just as it took some guts to insult a terrorist, or to go on a stroll in the Middle East in some gay Hasidic garb until

offended people start chasing him.

Many of the scenes seem better a few days after viewing. The swingers' meeting, where Brüno was trying to turn heterosexual, seemed a little pointless as I watched it, but, given time, now strikes me as brilliant: Married people trying to find some meaning in their lives by swapping partners, demonstrating such sexual positions as “pile-driver,” and yet they judge Brüno as a pervert. The mimed fellatio that Cohen brilliantly performs before a psychic who communicates with the dead is another scene that gets better with age. You recall the psychic looking almost embarrassed as Brüno, who

All who care about this issue should call Driehaus at 513-6842723, as well as the local office of U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) at 513-684-1021. Ask them to support a bill with a public option open to all, affordable to all and without private insurance. trict, including many African Americans. People sent money, put up signs, staffed tables, got voters to the polls. Now we can ask that these favors be returned.

In a meeting in Norwood in May, Driehaus was confronted by many citizens asking him to support universal care. He told them that he supported a strong public option.

“We’re going to get that bill through,” he said.

But at the July 4 parade in Northside, he seemed somewhat less confident that the public option would make its way.

Five hundred and fifty-two unions have come on board for what is called “single-payer healthcare,” in which government is the single payer of medical bills as in Medicare, and which many think would ensue if we win a bona fide public option. Many nurses and physicians are at the forefront of this struggle. Three Cincinnati physicians are among the activists in the local Single Payer Action Network; they walked with this group in the July 4 Parade and helped to give out nearly 1,000 fliers.

In June, the Contact Cen-

ter held a public forum at St. Monica Church in Clifton, where people with chronic illness spoke out about their need for government insurance. Pat Clifford, executive director of the Drop Inn Center, told the group that the center insures its employees, but that when two of the staff became ill this past year, the private insurer raised the center’s premiums by 55 percent.

“We don’t know what we're going to do,” Clifford said.

Lynn Williams, the action leader of the Contact Center, asked everyone present that night to get out their cell phones right then and there and call Driehaus, and people did.

Will the bills in the House and Senate provide a way out of the abyss of pain the health industry has driven us into?

Can we grow up and join the rest of the sentient world in providing public care for all?

“The struggle for universal healthcare is the great civil rights struggle of our time,” said Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) on a C-Span show in July.

(continued from page 9)

asks if he can give the spirit a hug, instead gives the air a great BJ, and you think, dude, you sell people on the idea that you can channel a dead person's thoughts and charge them money for it! Really, who's behavior is more embarrassing?

Ultimately, I'm thankful that I was able to go to a theater in suburban Cincinnati and watch this film. I recall growing up here when The Exorcist came out, showing at the same theater where I watched Brüno, and it was slapped with an X rating here, so no one under 18 was allowed to be corrupted by a girl vomiting pea soup. We’ve come a long way to watching a grown man show his pee-pee.

The best American humor has a sense of anarchy – the Marx Brothers, W.C. Fields, Mae West, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, and so on. It’s a reminder that our brains are there to make sense of the world, and in doing so it fools us as much as it enlightens us, and that our institutions are woefully inadequate social constructs that never deliver what they promise.

The disturbing lesson is that we are far more alike than we are different. You can’t just look at a frat boy from the South and laugh about his stupid worldview, because his view isn't all that removed from your own. We are the world. It’s an idea Paula Abdul would heartily endorse.

Are you interested in helping with Streetvibes?

Are you a proofreader, writer, poet, artist or photographer? If so, contact Greg Flannery 513.421.7803 x 12 or email streetvibes2@ yahoo.com

12

STREETVIBES August 1 - 14, 2009

Issues

Justice, Toilets and Bill Cunningham

By Lynne Ausman Staff Writer

Today, I tuned into WLW via its online podcasts. I never thought the day would come I think it’s safe to say that when I willingly sat down I grew up listening to Bill to listen to Cunningham, but Cunningham. alas that day He has been has come. I a household was joining So the issue of name in the my parents for answering nahome I grew dinner; and ture’s call after up in since when I walked dark is more before I was in the door, my born. mom quickly than a probI distinctly told me that lem of respect. remember the neighbor People do not family vacahad heard want to take tions – listenCunningham care of that sort ing to WLW talking about of business in (700 AM) the the Homeless entire way.

Coalition on public.

WLW has one the radio. It’s of the strongest happened bebroadcasts: At fore, but today night when many regional sta- I felt the need to tune in. tions go off air, WLW would To my surprise I was mencome in clear all the way to tioned by a caller who apFlorida. This was before iP- parently wrote me a letter. I ods, so I always made sure I haven’t received this letter had enough batteries to keep yet, but I look forward to it. my personal CD player run- The caller suggested that the ning for the entire trip. Lucki- coalition put port-a-potties at ly, my dad was not completely the Hamilton County Courtwithout mercy. By the time we house for the people sleeping hit Tennessee, my brother and outside there. She stated that I could usually talk him into the portable toilets are free. listening to the Beatles, Elton Frustrated with the lack of John or Billy Joel. To this day public restrooms for homethey are three of my favorite less people, the coalition has singers/songwriters: After all, looked at purchasing a port-athey saved me from AM Talk potty. They aren’t free, by the Radio on more than one occa- way. They cost about $85 per sion. month. I plan to tell her that

and the following: The only available public restrooms downtown close at 7 p.m. The bathrooms at Washington Park are closed during the winter and they close at dusk in the warmer months. Restrooms at homeless shelters are only open to shelter residents most of the time – and shelters are at capacity.

So the issue of answering nature’s call after dark is more than a problem of respect. People do not want to take care of that sort of business in public.

Who would? Taking a crap in an ally is potentially the most degrading and humiliating thing someone would have to go through. Have you ever used a bedpan? That’s as close as I ever want to come to shitting in the street.

Some homeless people urinate outside the courthouse at night. Cunningham calls it “peeing on the symbol of justice.” What justice?

Is it just that my neighbor’s dog shits in my yard everyday and my neighbor doesn’t pick it up because he assumes that, because I have dogs, I won’t mind?

Is it just that businesses slam their doors in the face of people looking for an appropriate place to pee?

Is it just that we turn the very activities that one must

Crossword

engage in to survive (sleeping, peeing, eating) into crimes?

Is it just that we no longer open our doors to strangers looking for a meal?

Is it just that we treat people who are sick and in need of care with disgust and disdain?

Is it just that we outsource our jobs overseas and stand idle when people have no work and no money?

Is it just that we are willing to allow people to pay their employees less than minimum wage?

Is it just that we would rather see someone on the streets than swallow our “pull yourself up by your bootstrap” mentality and give him/her/ them a home?

Is it just that we as a society stand idle as people are forced from their homes and into the streets?

Frankly, we have bigger problems to worry about than people peeing and pooping near the courthouse.

When we have enough affordable housing and permanent supportive housing to meet the need.

When we have enough living wage employment available so no one is unwillingly unemployed.

When we have the ability to prevent homelessness.

When all of the children in our community have enough

nutritionally balanced food to eat.

When schools have adequate funding and resources to educate their students.

When all students finish high school.

When everyone has access to higher education.

When all couples (gay or straight) are free to be together without ridicule or judgment.

When there are no dogs or cats living without a loving family and home.

When the neighbor’s yard is mowed.

When my neighbor’s dog stops shitting in my yard.

When the mosquitoes no longer bite me as I’m enjoying the great outdoors.

I think you get my point.

When these bigger injustices are solved, I’ll worry about the fecal matter at the courthouse.

I know this probably isn’t the answer you were hoping for or expecting, but I hope it answers some questions.

But I’ll take this one step further. If you make a taxdeductible donation to the Homeless Coalition of $85 per month, we’ll find a place to put a porta-potty.

And by the way, my name is pronounced “Lynn” – you know, like Lynne Cheney.

That’s a name you recognize, right?

Sudoku

Across 2. In the greatest number 5. Beat up 7. Two times 8. The right-hand side 11. Navy 13. Woody plant 14. Permanent army post 15. Capital of Greece 16. Open -----19. People in general 22. Scheme 23. Self-respect 24. Traditionalists 25. Tugs 26. Furnace 27. Fast aircraft

Fill in the blank squares so that each row, each column and each 3-by-3 block contain all of the digits 1 through 9.

Down 1. Employees 2. Skinflint 3. Eight singers 4. Chair 5. Thin soup 6. Conceals 9. Part of verb to be 10. Leased

12. British astronomer 15. Chopping tool 16. Ghost 17. Sorrowful 18. Male name 19. Freshwater fish 20. Small mountains 21. Something that causes fermentation 23. Bishop of Rome

The fundamental goal of a Sudoku puzzle is to use the provided numbers, or givens, to discover which numbers logically fill in the empty squares. The only rule of Sudoku is that each of the nine rows, each of the nine columns, and each of the nine 3x3 subsections must contain all of the numbers from one to nine, and each number consequently can occur in each row, column and subsection only once.

Solutions on Page 15

STREETVIBES August 1 - 14, 2009

Community News

Nurse, Nun and Advocate

13

Sister Phyllis Kemper takes healing to where it’s needed

By Paul Miller Contributing Writer

She wanted to be a nurse or a teacher, but Sister Phyllis Kemper, R.N. couldn’t stand the sight of blood while growing up. Soon after joining the Ursulines of Brown County, however, she helped out with the health care of the older sisters of her community. She found her calling and made the decision to become a nurse.

The people of Over-the-Rhine and surrounding areas are certainly glad she did.

Kemper is part of the Parish Nurse Program of TriHealth, a community partnership of Bethesda North and Good Samaritan hospitals. She is one of 10 nurses and three com-

munity health workers and a social worker employed in the program, which is based out of churches in nine low-income neighborhoods in Cincinnati.

Kemper’s home base is St. Francis Seraph Church at Liberty and Vine Streets. At 10 a.m. every Monday you’ll find her in a small office at Our Daily Bread on Race Street, taking care of the health needs of people in Over-the-Rhine.

When doing an initial assessment of health-care needs in Over-the-Rhine, Kemper found that Our Daily Bread had a space where people could see a nurse.

“I was always interested in community health nursing,” she says. “I realized people were falling through the

Our Daily Bread is a food and hospitality ministry at 1730 Race St., Over-the-Rhine, serving a mid-day meal for more than 500 people every weekday. To volunteer or contribute, call Joan or Kathy at 513-621-6364.

Giant Leaps ‘Streetvibes’ vendor now has stable housing

By Jeremy Flannery Contributing Writer Getting off the streets and into stable housing is an enormous step for a homeless person to rebound from rock bottom. Streetvibes vendor Leonard Jackson now lives in Section 8 housing in Winton Terrace after being homeless for three years, he says.

“I’m not trying to brag about it,” he says. “I’m just really thankful to have it.”

Jackson expressed gratitude to organizations in Cincinnati such as the Salvation Army and the Drop Inn Center that provide the homeless and disadvantaged with food, housing assistance and bus fare to seek employment.

The city of Cincinnati should do more to help, he says.

“The city should pay for homeless people’s rent for a year and pay for their gas and electric, too,” Jackson says.

“That would give people a real chance to get themselves back

together. I know some people might try to take advantage of that, maybe turn it into a dope house or something, but not everyone. If someone gives me a chance, you bet I’ll try to help myself and do what’s right.”

Jackson has been a Streetvibes vendor since 1997, when the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, which publishes the newspaper, had its office on Elm Street, he says. His route spans from Walnut and Race streets in Over-the-Rhine to Knowlton’s Corner and Chase Avenue in Northside, he says. “(Streetvibes) helps pay the bills and keeps bus fare in your pocket,” he says. “It lets people know what’s going on with the homeless, it tells the truth and it reports better than the other newspapers like the Enquirer or before with the Post, because they don’t report on these types of issues much.”

Jackson says he is one of the few Streetvibes vendors who venture across the Ohio River to sell the newspaper in Covington and Newport. Patrons have told Jackson that both Kentucky cities need more vendors like him, he says.

“This one lady in Covington came up to me and she gave me $25,” Jackson

cracks, and I wanted to find a way to help.”

For a few hours on Monday mornings since 2001, Kemper sees anywhere from four to 14 people at Our Daily Bread.

She provides health education and identifies health issues.

When necessary, she refers patients to health facilities for treatment, whether a hospital, a clinic or the Medical Van for the Homeless, which parks outside Our Daily Bread every Tuesday afternoon.

“The emergency room is still used as a source of primary care,” she says. “Transportation is a challenge for people to get health care outside of the neighborhood.”

High blood pressure and diabetes are common ailments among the population she ministers to.

“People don’t feel bad with high blood pressure,” Kemper says. “Unless they get it checked, it isn’t identified, and they are at high risk of a heart attack or stroke. And people can’t get or afford the medicine.”

Kemper refers people to

the Cincinnati Health Department or the Saint Vincent De Paul Charitable Pharmacy so they can have access to the medication they require.

She also teaches them how to take their medication.

“People get care and realize that they don’t have to feel bad all of the time” she says. “Some don’t remem- Sister Phyllis Kemper. Photo by Paul Miller. ber what feeling “It’s a blessing to be here” good is like.”

Kemper says. “People know Kemper visits people at I am a nurse and watch out home who can’t get out. She will go to the doctor with pa- for me. Once I was walktients who can’t advocate for ing down Vine Street and a crowd had gathered around themselves. “(Many times) it’s just mak- someone who was in medical ing the doctors instructions distress. A couple of the guys yelled, ‘Clear out of the way! understandable” she says.

Kemper also collaborates Here comes the nurse.’ I am with Joyce Cue, the social blessed.”

Because of her, so are the worker at Our Daily Bread, people of Over-the-Rhine. when someone needs a referral for social-service needs.

Leonard Jackson, uses the money he earns from selling ‘Streetvibes’ to help pay bills and bus fare. Photo by Jeni Jenkins.

says. “I asked her what that’s for and she said, ‘That’s from God.’ Then she gave me $2 for newspapers. I thanked her very much for that. That is a blessing from God. Some people say they don’t care about the homeless when I’m selling. I try to tell them, ‘You might be there one day – homeless and with a fishing pole by the river struggling to survive.’ I hope not, but you never know what might happen in the future.”

Jackson says Streetvibes could also do more to help its vendors by providing T-shirts so people are more aware of their presence. Vendors would also be able to replenish their

stock of papers during the weekend if the office would be open for a half day on Saturdays, he says.

Both suggestions are under consideration, according to Lynne Ausman, administrative coordinator for the Homeless Coalition.

“We are working on getting T-shirts, bags, hats or something,” she says. “We’re working on the pricing or raising funds to do that, or seeing if they can be donated so it can provide them with more legitimacy so people don’t have to wonder, ‘Hey, who is this guy?’

The paper is about the vendors and providing for them with

something, and to provide a service to the community.

But it’s mostly about the vendors.”

Opening the office on Saturdays might require rescheduling staff hours and seeking volunteers, she says.

“We only have four staff members and we all work 40 hours per week or more,” Ausman says. “We’ve thought about using volunteers, but we still need staff here. As Streetvibes and our staff grows, maybe we will be able to be open on Saturdays in the future.”

14

Vendor Voice

Suicide

STREETVIBES August 1 - 14, 2009

Cleo’s Joke Corner

By Mack L. Russell Vendor Suicide, I hate you.

You take away and never give back.

You make promises of false dreams, convincing those who follow you that death is better.

Suicide, where did you come from?

I don’t know, but I’m sure there’s a place of sheer coldness and darkness that will welcome you.

Did you hear about the crime that happened to the house that was being remodeled?

The showers were stalled, the curtains were held up, the doors were hung – and the windows were framed for it.

Suicide, you take from people, never reaping the consequences.

You kill without a cause.

If pain is all you have to give, pass over, keep on keeping on.

There’s no room at this hotel, no vacancies.

Your kind is not welcome.

Go back where you come from.

Please go back.

Suicide, I hate you.

For my friend Ed, departed March 2007.

What’s Happenin’ August Events Benefits:

Northside Community Yard Sale. Benefits Churches Active In Northside. August 8. 9am-2pm. http://northside.net/sale for more info.

Music:

Grammy-Award Winning Charles Ford Singers. August 23.

4pm. at St. Mark Christian Fellowship 820 Ezzard Charles Dr.

Activities:

Health Care Reform Informational Forum. August 3. 7pm.

First Unitarian Church in Avondale. Hosted by Women’s City Club. US Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-Cincinnati) will speak.

Homegrown Permaculture: Water Use Workshop. “Water: Natural Resource or Commodity?” August 8. 9:30am-4pm.

Reservations required. Contact 513/683-2340 or www.grailville. org.

Healing Emotions: Briding East and West. August 21. 7pm.

Gaden Samdrupling Buddhist Monastery hosts a conversation between a Buddhist monk and a western psychiatrist to explor the integration of East and West in emotional healing. 3046 Pavlova Drive, Colerain Township. More information at 513/385-7116. $10 donation suggested.

Read the Streetvibes blog for stories between issues at streetvibes.wordpress.com

Ongoing Events 2nd Tuesdays

Cincinnati-Ohioans to Stop Execution Meeting. IJPC Peaslee Center (215 E. 14th Street, OTR). 7-8pm.

3rd Wednesdays

IJPC General Peace Committee. Peaslee Neighborhood Center. 7-9pm.

1st Thursdays

Benefits Rights Advocacy Group. Contact Center (1212 Vine St. OTR).

Noon-1:30pm.

Northern Kentucky Peace and Justice Group. Mother of God Church (119 W. 6th St. Covington). 7pm.

2nd Thursdays

CeaseFire Cincinnati. Church of the Living God (430 Forest Ave). 9:30am.

Become a Fan of Streetvibes on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/streetvibescincinnati

STREETVIBES August 1 - 14, 2009

15

Resources

Need Help or Want to Help?

Shelter: Women and Children

Our Daily Bread

621-6364

Health Center for Respite Care

621-1868

Crossroad Health Center

381-2247

Health Resource Center Homeless Mobile Health Van McMicken Dental Clinic

357-4602 352-2902 352-6363

Mental Health Access Point Mercy Franciscan at St. John

558-8888 981-5800 458-6670 977-4489

1730 Race Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202

Central Access Point Cincinnati Union Bethel

381-SAFE 768-6907

St. Francis Soup Kitchen Churches Active in Northside

535-2719 591-2246

Bethany House

557-2873

FreeStore/FoodBank

241-1064

300 Lytle Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 1841 Fairmount Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45214

4230 Hamilton Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45223 112 E. Liberty Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202

Grace Place Catholic Worker House 681-2365

Madisonville Ed & Assistance Center 271-5501

Salvation Army

762-5660

St. Vincent de Paul

YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter

872-9259

6037 Cary Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45224

131 E. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202

Shelter: Men City Gospel Mission

1419 Elm Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202

241-5525

Justice Watch 241-0490 St. Fran/St. Joe Catholic Work. House 381-4941 1437 Walnut Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202

Mt. Airy Shelter

661-4620

Shelter: Both

3600 Erie Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45227

1125 Bank Street, Cinti, Ohio 45214

562-8841

Treatment: Men Charlie’s 3/4 House

784-1853

DIC Live In Program Prospect House

721-0643 921-1613

Other Resources

Starting Over

961-2256

2121 Vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202

682 Hawthorne Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45205

Treatment: Women First Step Home 2203 Fulton, Cinti, Ohio 45206

961-4663

Caracole (HIV/AIDS)

761-1480

Treatment: Both

Drop Inn Center

721-0643

351-0422 381-6672

Interfaith Hospitality Network Lighthouse Youth Center (Youth)

471-1100 221-3350

AA Hotline CCAT Joseph House (Veterans)

241-2965

Hamilton County ADAS Board Recovery Health Access Center Sober Living Talbert House

946-4888 281-7422 681-0324 641-4300

217 W. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202

3330 Jefferson, Cinti, Ohio 45220

Housing: CMHA Excel Development OTR Community Housing

721-4580 632-7149 381-1171

Tender Mercies

721-8666

Tom Geiger House Dana Transitional Bridge Services Volunteers of America

961-4555 751-0643 381-1954

114 W. 14th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 27 W. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202

Food/Clothing Lord’s Pantry OTR/Walnut Hills Kitchen & Pantry

830 Ezzard Charles Dr. Cinti, Ohio 45214 1522 Republic Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202

Advocacy Catholic Social Action Community Action Agency Contact Center

1227 Vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202

OTR: 1620 Vine Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202 Walnut Hills: 2631 Gilbert, Cinti, Ohio 45206

421-3131 569-1840 381-4242

Franciscan JPIC 721-4700 Gr. Cinti Coalition for the Homeless 421-7803 117 E. 12th Street, Cinti, Ohio 45202

621-5300 961-1983

40 E. McMicken Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45202

1800 Logan St. Cinti, Ohio 45202

961-4080

1821 Summit Road, Cinti, Ohio 45237

5 E. Liberty St. Cinti, Ohio 45202

NAMI of Hamilton County PATH Outreach

Anthony House (Youth)

2728 Glendora Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45209

3550 Washington Ave, Cinti, Ohio 45229

Intercommunity Justice & Peace Cr. Legal Aid Society Ohio Justice & Policy Center Faces Without Places Stop AIDS

579-8547 241-9400 421-1108 363-3300 421-2437

Center Independent Living Options Emmanuel Community Center Peaslee Neighborhood Center Franciscan Haircuts from the Heart Goodwill industries Healing Connections Mary Magdalen House People Working Cooperatively The Caring Place United Way Women Helping Women

Hamilton/Middletown

St. Raephaels Salvation Army Serenity House Day Center Open Door Pantry

241-2600 241-2563 621-5514 381-0111 771-4800 751-0600 721-4811 351-7921 631-1114 211 977-5541 863-3184 863-1445 422-8555 868-3276

Northern Kentucky Brighton Center

ECHO/Hosea House Fairhaven Resuce Mission Homeward Bound Youth Mathews House Homeless & Housing Coalition Parish Kitchen Pike St. Clinic Transitions, Inc Welcome House of NKY Women’s Crisis Center VA Domiciliary VA Homeless

859-491-8303 859-261-5857 859-491-1027 859-581-1111 859-261-8009 859-727-0926 859-581-7745 859-291-9321 859-491-4435 859-431-8717 859-491-3335 859-559-5011 859-572-6226

If you like what you read, but don’t live in the Cincinnati area, you can subscribe to Streetvibes. Call us at 513-421-7803 x 12 to learn more about subscribing to Streetvibes.

Puzzle Solutions

16

Vendors’ Artwork

Artwork by Anthony Williams

STREETVIBES August 1 - 14, 2009

Berta’s Art Corner

“Oasis,” Federal Reserve Bank, 150 East Fourth St., Cincinnati, Ohio

Double Take “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” - John Lennon

Aimie Willhoite captured the dignity and gifts of individuals in Over-the-Rhine.