Streetvibes March 2004 Edition

Streetvibes March 2004

Radio Marathon Brings the Voices of Homelessness to with my family when I was the Airwaves car younger – I’ve never forgotten this,”

by Jimmy Heath On one of the coldest days of the year, Cleveland homeless advocates spent the night outside in a makeshift booth to campaign for homelessness awareness. The Seventh Annual Homelessness Marathon aired from Cleveland, Ohio on Thursday, February 12th and ran until 9AM on Friday. The homeless and advocates brought their concerns to the public in the overnight marathon radio show heard across much of North America. The 14 hour radio broadcast originates from the streets of a different city each year.

The radio broadcast - the longest regularly scheduled public affairs program in America is “the most significant media event focusing on homelessness and poverty” according to Donald Whitehead, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless.

“Homelessness continues to be a silent issue, and we will do whatever it takes to give homeless people a voice,” founder and radio host Jeremy Weir Alderson said.

“We give them the chance to tell their stories and talk about the obstacles they face. And from what I’ve seen, America does care.”

As in past years, the broadcast booth was set up outside to dramatize the plight of people with nowhere to go in the cold. The St. Malachi Center on Cleveland’s west side was host to the event, providing an indoors respite from the cold, along with hot food and drinks, some of which were donated by the Cleveland Restaurant Association and other local agencies. Calls were taken from around the country; the program focused on homeless issues nationwide. The program’s goal was to generate a national dialogue about homelessness and poverty in America and to create positive momentum for solving these problems.

Presidential candidate Dennis J. Kucinich called in on-air during the Marathon to express his gratitude to the work of the homeless advocates in Cleveland. “Society has an obligation to provide housing to everyone,” he said. “Affordable housing, jobs – these are things that I’m concerned with,” said Kucinich .

“First thing we need is affordable housing and living wage jobs. Then we need universal health care, tuition-free college. But first we need to address immediate needs.

There is a fundamental moral obligation to help people. I lived in a

said Kucinich. His message to those still on the streets? “Never resign yourself to being homeless.”

Kucinich sponsored a Homelessness Summit in 2003 in his home district of Cleveland. The Summit assembled advocates, elected officials, and homeless people to examine the causes of homelessness in the district and identify the gaps in services and ways to close them. Kucinich convened the Summit in response to the increasing frequency with which his constituents were contacting his office about homeless related Brian Davis, executive Director of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the services.

More than 26,000 people are Homeless (left) is interveiwed bt Marathon host Jeremy Weir Alderson homeless in Cuyahoga County Homelessness Marathon. This years’ every year since its inception in (Cleveland) according to Brian Davis 1998. The first broadcast was heard Marathon was heard on nearly 80 of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for stations nationwide, and on 25 to 30 only on WEOS in Geneva, New the Homeless (NEOCH). stations carrying the Canadian York. The sixth broadcast, in 2003, There were no on-air Homeless Marathon. Visit the was heard on more than 70 stations solicitations for money as Maraththon’s Web site - http:// coast-to-coast, with another 18 “consciousness raising, not fund www.homelessnessmarathon.org. stations airing a parallel Canadian raising,” was the Marathon’s policy.

“The most important thing we do is put homeless people on the air,” says Marathon producer Karen D’Andrea. “So we make a great deal of effort to get their participation, by working with shelters to set up special listening rooms, contacting advocacy groups, and making a kind of homeless people’s block party right at the broadcast site.” Many homeless people and advocates took advantage of the free call-in and the onsite microphone.

The broadcast was made available free to stations via the NPR and Pacifica satellites and a Webcast.

The Marathon continues to grow Fred listens to the Marathon on the radio

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STREETVIBES The Tri-State's Homeless Grapevine

Streetvibes, the Tri-State's alternative news source, is a newspaper written by, for, and about the homeless and contains relevant discussions of social justice, and poverty issues. It is published once a month by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless.

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The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is a group of shelters, agencies and individuals committed to ending homelessness in Cincinnati through coordinating services, educating the public and grassroots organizing.

GCCH Staff Georgine Getty - Executive Director Brendan Goodwin - Administrative Coordinator Andy Erickson - Education Coordinator Elizabeth Linville - Civil Rights Coordinator Mary Gaffney - Receptionist

Streetvibes Jimmy Heath, Editor Photographers Jimmy Heath, Berta Lambert, Curtis Proffitt

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Ohio Cities Face Common Challenges

by Jimmy Heath There are an estimated 26,000 people in the Cleveland, Ohio metro-area who experience homelessness each year. Over 2,000 are homeless each night.

In appearance and circumstances, the faces of homelessness in Cleveland are the same as in Cincinnati. Men and woman, families and children, all struggle to afford decent, affordable housing while maintaining a sustainable living.

Women and children continue to be the fastest growing segment of the homeless population in both of these Ohio cities.

Cleveland is now the home of the largest shelter in the state.

2100 Lakeside Place has a capacity of 400 persons, but more than 500 people are routinely housed there each night when the weather is bad and because they never turn people away who need help.

Lack of affordable housing Ohio’s largest shelter, 2100 Lakeside Place is the major contributor to the homeless population in both Streetvibes newspaper nearly eight dealing with the issue of homelessness is education, and Cleveland and Cincinnati, and is the years ago. reversal of commonly held number one cause of homelessness The Homeless Grapevine, stereotypes. With public support, nationwide. published by NEOCH for over ten we can move the problem of Spousal abuse, drug years, has had a history of homelessness into the past. A addiction and mental health issues struggles with identity and moral and ethical change in public amongst the homeless are some of controversy with Cleveland city attitudes about the less fortunate the concerns shared by homeless government. will allow the homeless to find the advocates in both of these Ohio “Mayor White hated the dignity and the strength within cities. paper,” says Davis. themselves to realize their own Both cities “But the cops were struggle with NIMBYmuch more sympathetic potential and grace. With government support, we can begin ism, (Not-In-My-Backearly on, especially Yard), as shelters are since the vendors police to help people find their own way pushed to the more themselves. The police out of homelessness with affordable housing, a living wage industrial and know that if there is a warehouse areas of the problem with a vendor, and educational opportunities.

The visit with advocates in city - away from jobs, we will take care of it.”

Cleveland last month taught me transportation and Cincinnati’s mayor Jimmy Heath that even though we share the opportunity, and people and city council detest same struggles, we also share the who do not want to come face-toStreetvibes too. In the past the same hopes. The common face with the problem of mayor has publicly derided the community, Americans in general, homelessness in their own paper and the vendors, but neighborhood.

Cincinnatians in general continue to don’t want to see the problems of homelessness persist.

The Northeast Ohio support the concept of a street Cincinnatians are Coalition for the Homeless paper sold by homeless vendors. supportive of the work that is (NEOCH), headed up by executive In my travels I visit many director Brian Davis, struggles to cities and shelters, and I am always going on to alleviate homelessness keep the shelters and advocates on struck by the similarities. Denial of in our city too, and will continue to be if they to listen to their hearts a unified course of action. the problem by government instead of the status quo.

“We sometimes are kept at officials is universal. Animosity arms-length politically, but we help and hate bridge many gaps, including legal crimes against issues and grievances. All of the the homeless shelters need this collaboration,” are common says Davis. “We have one shelter occurrences. that won’t even let us in because All of these we have handled some client issues know grievances against them. This no borders. particular shelter used the cloak of The common privacy to protect themselves from struggle of the scrutiny. But we try where we can homeless to provide links in the system.” remains the Cleveland advocates also same in every boast a street newspaper, The city.

Homeless Grapevine, which The helped launch Cincinnati’s own first step in NEOCH’s Brian Davis

S T R E E T V I B E S March, 2004

From the Editor

Page 2

ON A SCALE OF ONE TO A HUNDRED, HOW MUCH DO YOU DISAGREE WITH THE CITY’S TREATMENT OF CINCINNATI’S HOMELESS?

I WILL DONATE:

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He’s only 18 months old and already he’s trapped in the cycle of homelessness in Cincinnati. His mother needs an affordable place to live and a job with a living wage as she escapes a life of domestic violence. The current treatment of homeless individuals in our city means that he may never be able to live in a home of his own. There are 25,000 people in Cincinnati that experience homelessness each year. More than one-third of those are women and children.

The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless believes that by addressing the root causes of the problem through education, advocacy and coordination of services, we can end homelessness in our city. The more support we have from the community, the further our efforts reach. Please cut the coupon and pick a box. It could mean that one less child will have to live in one.

Send your donations to Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202

S T R E E T V I B E S March, 2004

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Homeless News Digest

Compiled by R.V. Murphy A group of homeless people is seeking to get Denver mayor John Hickenlooper to create a tent city for the city’s homeless. With the help of a college professor, the group studied tent cities in Portland, Seattle, and Los Angeles and presented a 39page proposal for their own to the city’s Commission on Homelessness, according to the Denver Post. A tent city is a small plot of land where people with no available shelter could sleep without fear of police harassment, bulldozers, or predators. Advocates for the tent city estimate that setting one up would cost $100,000.

There is no precise census of homeless people in the Mile High City.

A survey by the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative, an advocacy group, puts the population at about 9,700. The number of shelter beds has remained at about 1,000 since the early 1990s. Families and children are the fastest-growing segment of the homeless population. The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News have both come out against the tent city idea. But surprisingly, the idea is drawing criticism from the most unlikely critics. The Colorado Coalition of the Homeless says, “the plan fails to address health, safety and sanitary issues and it doesn’t address causes of homelessness such as mental illness, substance abuse, job loss and the lack of affordable housing.”

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom recently held the first of many promised meetings of his new “Homelessness Cabinet,” made up of representatives from roughly 10 city agencies wrestling with the problem. He told the San Francisco Examiner that the planned weekly, or at least monthly, meetings would “connect the dots” and provide accountability so that needed services are delivered efficiently and homelessness can be ended in the coming decade.

Newsom also said he plans to save some $400,000 a year by eliminating the Mayor’s Office on Homelessness. “It’s disbanded,” he said, adding, “I’d rather put those dollars in direct services.” The mayor said he wants to create much closer communication and cooperation among the various city agencies that together spend more than $100 million a year dealing

with aspects of chronic homelessness.

Last week, Dallas mayor Laura Miller held a town hall meeting for the homeless, according to the Dallas Morning News. Miller wanted to hear opinions on city plans for a homeless assistance center. The city has narrowed down possible sites to three.

Some homeless people and advocates are concerned that one of the sites is eight miles from downtown. “It’s like throwing a party and no one will come,” Linda Cahanin said. “They want us out of downtown. Out of sight, out of mind.” James Waghorne, president of the Dallas Homeless Neighborhood Association, said the group collected signatures asking which site homeless people preferred. The city plans to open a facility for 24 hours, seven days a week that offers restrooms, showers, laundry, drug and alcohol counseling, mental health services, child care, computer access, lockers and other services. Voters approved $3 million for the facility in a May bond election, but officials say that does not cover the cost and that they must also raise private money for the facility. The City Council is scheduled to vote on the facility Feb. 25.

Hundreds of migrant workers in Merced County in California could be left homeless this summer, the county’s housing authorities have said. The Modesto Bee reports that state funding to build new migrant worker housing is in danger, and Planada’s dilapidated Felix Torres Migrant Center was in such poor condition it was forced to shut down last October and designated for demolition. Back then, the state had enough cash to build more housing. Now funding is in jeopardy, and about 400 migrants, their spouses and children could be left without a place to stay.

The department had set aside about $4.1 million to build the new facility, with another $3 million promised by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. There has been no official announcement to withdraw the funding, but Nicholas Benjamin, executive director of Merced County’s Housing Authority, said he believes the project won’t be funded, and that once the state funding goes, the federal money will go as well.

Many migrant workers sleep in their cars.

S T R E E T V I B E S March, 2004

On a 28-degree night in February, advocates count those living outdoors.

by Andy Erickson due to the cold weather.

Education Coordinator The drop in the numbers On February 3, a night that from May to February is probably reached a low of 28 degrees, the also due in large part to the cold Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the weather. On a night like this one, Homeless, the PATH team, and a many people who would have handful of volunteers counted 24 otherwise slept in camps outside people sleeping outside in might have sought warmer cover in Cincinnati. The count was shelters, abandoned buildings, or conducted by the Homeless friends or family’s dwellings.

Outreach Group, a coalition of Another reason for the social service agencies change in numbers that provide outreach to could be attributed those living on the to the increase in street. outreach to this The Homeless population since the Outreach Group formed summer months. last summer when Brent Chasteen, an people living under outreach worker for downtown bridges Downtown clashed with city Cincinnati, Inc. has officials who wanted helped over 40 Andy Erickson them removed. The people get some struggle resulted in form of housing just since many changes in the way the September. The PATH team and police, social service agencies, and other members of the Homeless the homeless population interact.

Outreach group have also had many During the height of this issue, successes. social service providers recognized At this point, however, the the need for increased, coordinated reasons for the change in numbers outreach to those who sleep are only educated guesses. It will outside and out of sight from many take a few more quarterly surveys agencies that help homeless before patterns in the outdoor individuals. homeless population can really be The survey on February 3 is understood. One thing that the first of what will become a everyone in the Homeless Outreach quarterly effort to count those Group agrees on, however, is that living outdoors. The Homeless whether the number is 193 or 24 Outreach Group hopes that these homeless people sleeping outside, counts will help social service that number is far too many. providers better understand who is living outside, where they are 20 YEARS staying, and how the numbers tend to fluctuate. By better SERVING THE understanding the changes in this NEIGHBORHOOD population, outreach workers will be able to better serve this population.

A similar but separate survey was conducted nearly nine months ago on May 21. That survey found 193 people living outside, along with 1018 people living in shelters. The recent February count did not survey shelters, but it could be assumed that the numbers would have been slightly higher than the May count,

Story, Editorial and Art Submission Deadline for the April, 2004 edition of STREETVIBES is Friday, March 12th

Homeless News

Empowering our neighborhood children through peace, art and education Peaslee Neighborhood Center 215 East 14th Street Over-the-Rhine Cincinnati, Ohio 45202

(513) 621-5514 Page 4

Your Negro Tour Guide: Truths In Black And White

by Kathy Y. Wilson Emmis Books Hardcover, 284 pages ISBN: 1578601436 Price: $19.99 Review by Jimmy Heath I look forward each week to picking up Cincinnati’s City Beat magazine and reading the prose of award-winning columnist Kathy Y. Wilson. Her column, Your Negro Tour Guide, is the first thing I look for when I pick up the city’s free weekly art and politics newspaper.

When Kathy came to City Beat from her former job as a reporter at the Hamilton-Journal News, City Beat editor John Fox gave her a job and free reign to write about anything she wanted.

And write she has!

Kathy’s cutting commentaries dissect the AfricanAmerican experience from her own perspective and personal experiences, and challenges white Cincinnati with potent and biting observations of the city and its disowning of racism, classism and poverty. Each of her columns reaches into the realm of denial, rips it up, and takes to task those who are responsible.

There is a softer, compassionate side to Kathy Wilson too. And there are echoes of her own life and history here; her mother and family and friends, and how they all played a part in her becoming who she is today. It is good stuff, and only Kathy Y. Wilson could pull it off.

For hard-core fans like me, her best columns have now been published into a book, Your Negro

Tour Guide, Truths in Black and White.

Published in a limited run by Emmis Books here in Cincinnati, the book is a collection of Wilson’s City Beat articles from the last three years.

In her introduction Wilson writes, “herein lies the truth. During three years I’ve gotten better at telling it – mine and ours.”

Her new book is a fresh and deliciously irreverent Kathy Y. Wilson discusses her newly released book with the crowd at Joseph-Beth declaration of everyday life and politics in Cincinnati, lucidly described by a woman who knows how to get to the root of culture and relationships. Wilson is an insightful philosopher, who weaves her keen insight into words, assembling and dissecting human social behavior in Cincinnati.

If you don’t know Kathy Wilson, and want to find out what all the fuss is about, pick this book up as a primer to your life, and a guide to Cincinnati in black and white.

I think people who are considering the move to Cincinnati need to read this book. White suburbia needs to read this book.

It is a way to learn about this troubled city from a sharp and witty, hopeful and honest perspective.

There are three truths: my truth, your truth and the truth.

Chinese Proverb

Know Your Rights Brochure Available!

The Know Your Rights Brochure is now available at the Coalition’s office. The brochure is a legal guide for Cincinnati’s homeless and covers a person’s basic rights when interacting with the police, as well as some local laws that might be of interest to the homeless population. If you are a homeless person or if you work with homeless people and would like to obtain free copies of the brochure for yourself or your agency, please call 421-7803, or stop by the Coalition office and pick one up.

S T R E E T V I B E S March, 2004

National Homeless Civil Rights Organizing Project (NHCROP)

Jimmy Heath photo

Kathy Wilson’s Book Brings Clarity To Cincinnati Politics

117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 homelesscivilrights@yahoo.com Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (513) 421-7803

Help build a powerful, resident led organization!

The Republic Street & Vine Street Block Clubs are fighting for the rights of lowincome residents in Over-the-Rhine and they are going strong. Block clubs are forming in other parts of the neighborhood, too.

Call the Contact Center at 381-4242 or stop by 1227 Vine Street in Over-the-Rhine to learn more about how you can get involved with these resident led organizations.

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The Peace Village

by Dr. Steve Sunderland

grief train that I have been riding since the 1980s. At that time, thanks to grief organizations, Parents of Murdered Children, Compassionate Friends, a grief specialist, Ken Czillinger, and grieving parents, Rachel and Paul Burrell, we started drawing and meeting with children who had experienced a death in their lives.

We didn’t know then that the pictures and music, the hugging and discussions, were working little miracles in the hearts of children, but we hoped that we were making a statement to children who were in the abyss without much guidance from parents, schools, and religious

The mail brought the very good news that I will receive the Friedl Dicker-Brandeis award at the first annual teacher recognition luncheon of the Social Studies Department of the Cincinnati Public Schools. The letter informs me that Friedl Dicker-Brandeis “...was a teacher and art therapist who used drawing lessons to bring both solace and catharsis to the traumatized children in the Czechoslovakian ghetto called Terezin.”

I believe that this award is for everyone in the Peace Village working with children at this time of war and violence. I share it with the whole village, youth and child, adult and senior that are making a major difference by being with children at this time in a way that heals what can be repaired, reconciles what has been shattered, and works for more peace with Dr. Steve Sunderland justice.

Sitting in Children’s Hospital, Cincinnati, last institutions. We called our work, “Fernside,” partly for the street that week, listening to Ambassador the Burrells picked up their artistic Kuslijugic, representative from son, David, when he was alive.

Bosnia to the United Nations, I But also because we wanted to find immediately thought back to his opening statement: “We must learn a “side” we could draw and live on that connected the dead and the to remember without hating and with justice.” How are the children living.

We wanted the children to and adults of the war zones to do grow up without hating their this AND HOW DO WE HELP deceased family and friends. And, THEM? I remember the faces of most importantly, we wanted the the children of the Winton Place children to not grow hating Youth Center the day of the riots themselves. Very quickly we and the day after when we did learned that our efforts needed to some posters. We pushed stretch to that place in the child’s ourselves to draw the killings that had preceded the riots and to face, heart where all of the blame and responsibility for the death had as only 7 and 8 year olds can face been lodged. Art was one great the violence that has become a major part of Cincinnati life. Many way to reach and touch. I remember a very little one, 5 or 6, posters had guns, bullets finding drawing with me about her little their marks, and blood dripping, brother’s death and coming up with splotching, and all over. The war a drawing of a “broken heart.” zone was this neighborhood and “Let’s draw a healing heart,” I not just downtown. And we drew requested and she obliged and right and talked, over and over again next to her “first” heart she drew a until one little child asked, “What picture of a heart with a band-aid are you going to do with our pictures, Puppetman?” I told him I stretched across. We both looked at the hearts and then at each other, would protect them; take them to smiled, hugged and kept on some churches that wanted to see drawing. them and to also make their own.

I sense that something a little “Take good care of them,” he like this was going on with Friedl warned me, “they are us.”

I have been caring for these Dicker-Brandeis in her concentration camp. I had not posters and the additional 10,000 that have been made since that time heard of her before last week and I had seen the children’s art from this and the unknown number made by camp in lots of books, a beautiful children who were part of a long

S T R E E T V I B E S March, 2004

book by E. Markarova and R. Miller (2001) Friedl DickerBrandeis: Vienna 1898Auschwitz 1944: The artist who inspired the children’s drawing of Terezin. It exists as a very valuable look at her life and work.

In a remarkable essay on what she was doing with art and children in the camps, she makes this beautiful point: “The teacher, the educator, should attempt to influence the child as little as possible. A teacher ought to be restrained to the utmost when it comes to influencing the pupils...The ideas of children cannot be directed. Not only would one rob oneself of the chance to gain access into the world of the child’s ideas, but one would lose an overview of the current degree of the child’s openness and ability and his psychological state.”

The authors of the above book make the point that DickerBrandeis never mentions that war, the physical plight of the children, or any political idea in her essay.

She directs her ideas to those who may be working with her and following after her in this “work.”

I bow to this strength of not increasing the burden on the children of the context of their lives and wonder how she did it without losing her own spirit of hope. For this “work” is aimed at the part of our imagination in which hope and very strong emotions, including peace and justice, reside. Her insights about how to bring the “art” of the inner beauty of the child to the surface really defies words but is a beacon for those who continue the “work.”

How many children (and adults) in the war zone put their heads down without the hope of peace? Drawing opens the heart a little and sometimes that is just enough to make it from one part of a day to another, as every artist knows. Another sentence continued to ring in my ears from last week’s conversations with Bob Herring, principal of Nativity Elementary. Somehow our discussion moved to the current exhibit at one of our art museums called, “the Treasures of the Vatican.” “I am not going to see it,” Mr. Herring said with the only sound of defiance I had heard from him in our discussion. He continued: “The Catholic Church is stuck in keeping up buildings, paintings, and sculpture and confusing them with the real treasures of the church, the children.” Right in the war zone of Nativity, he continues to think about the need for a “new” church that has invested in children as the “works of art” and celebrates these human creations. I heard him

Peace Village

speaking for many religions, many school systems, and many cities that have abandoned the children in the war zones to another sports stadium, another shopping mall, and another cut in taxes for schooling. Keeping away from Vatican art seemed a most unusual form of protest; yet, I smiled as this clear thinking educator continued to try and “draw” another picture that made sense to him and his notion of a truly caring religion.

So an award will be given to our work in the Peace Village, to everyone holding a child’s hand and heart with the beauty of teaching, service, art, and the memory of this remarkable woman, alone with children’s spirits, lighting one more great candle.

Dr. Steve Sunderland, professor of Social Work at the University of Cincinnati, is the Director of The Peace Village, a group of individuals from the national and international community committed to examining all issues of Peace in the world.

Dr. Sunderland also heads up Posters-for-Peace which engages people in expressing their visions of Peace, in their own words, through the creation of posters.

Wish List...

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Streetvibes newspaper is published monthly on a shoe-string budget from the offices of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. Can you help us with some of the following items? * Digital Camera & Accessories * VCR for making copies of Streetvibes TV show and for educational packets * Blank VHS tapes * Desktop paper folder * Supplies (paper towels, toilet paper ) * Cleaning Supplies * Office Supplies - postage stamps, floppies, copier paper and other supplies If you can help, contact us at: Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, 117 East 12th Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202 (513) 421-7803 e-mail: Streetvibes@juno.com

Page 6

Cleveland Shelter for Women Re-opens; Provides Safety same room, a former has bathrooms on each floor with Suellen Saunders, the program and Support the gymnasium, on bunk beds or mats working doors. There are plans in manager, seem committed to on the floor. In 2003, Catholic

by Elizabeth Linville Charities announced they were During the month of February, staff members of GCCH stepping down as the agency in charge of the shelter. Nearly a visited the newly opened year was spent attempting to find a Community Women’s Shelter in new provider to run the shelter and Cleveland, Ohio. The emergency a better location to house people. shelter had opened less than a week before the visit, and residents The chosen provider was Mental Health Services (MHS), a nonand staff were living and working profit that serves mentally disabled, in an atmosphere of slight chaos. homeless adults. Other The staff of the new programs provided by shelter, though, were the organization include enthusiastic about a mobile crisis team and providing a safe child trauma services. environment and According to MHS’s assisting women out executive director, of homelessness.

Steven M. Friedman, The Elizabeth Linville the organization is Community Women’s “expanding our mission once again Shelter is a replacement for what to include all in our community was Cleveland’s only emergency who are homeless, regardless of women’s shelter, the Bishop whether or not she has a disability.”

Cosgrove Center. Repeated In its first week of service, complaints had been made about the new shelter appears to be conditions in the center, which was providing a much better run by Catholic Charities. There atmosphere for the women it were allegations of drug and sex serves. Both Nickie Antonio, the abuse on shelter premises. All the new director of operations, and women and their children slept in

maintaining a safe shelter and continuing to make improvements based on the needs and desires of the residents. Clients live in rooms of varying size (from 4 beds a room to larger, dormitory style accommodations). The staff is trying to place women in rooms based mainly on compatibility. This allows some women more privacy (such as those with children or mental issues), while others can take advantage of the support network and closer proximity to staff the dormitories provide.

Women who had lived at the old shelter reported that they were able to sleep much better in these new environments. There is full time security placed at the shelter to help guard against the sex and drug abuse problems at the old site. At previous incarnations of the shelter, women were not permitted to shower with the door closed.

Antonio reported that one woman told her that, before moving to the new facility, she had not showered in four months. The new shelter

Poor to Put ‘Bushville’ Tent City at NY Convention A group fighting poverty announced plans last month to erect a tent city called “Bushville” during the Republican Party convention in August, one of several demonstrations expected in a summer of political protest in New York.

The Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign will put up the tents for five days before the Aug. 30 September 2 meeting, which will nominate President Bush to run for a second four-year term in the November 2 election.

The group said it will also demonstrate at the Democratic Party’s national convention in Boston at the end of July, but had no plans to set up a symbolic shantytown there.

“We will be marching

because both Democrats and Republicans alike have failed to address our real life and death issues,” said spokeswoman Cheri Honkala. She said the political establishment neglected poor and homeless people and issues such as health care, housing and farm workers’ rights.

Honkala, a formerly homeless mother in Minneapolis, Minnesota, said the group will provide “reality bus tours” in rundown areas of New York, Philadelphia and New Jersey from the tent city. She declined to disclose its precise location.

The group plans a march on August 30 from U.N. headquarters to the Madison Square Garden convention venue, she said.

As a prelude to the summer protests, the US led war in Iraq

The Lone Ranger of Righteousness

by Paul Rogat Loeb It’s my right to run. This is Ralph Nader’s core case in announcing his 2004 presidential candidacy.

Yes, Nader has a legal right to do this. He also has a legal right to donate $100,000 to the Republican Party and become a Bush Pioneer. That doesn’t make it a good idea. So much of Nader’s career has been built on reminding us of our common ties. It’s not ok, he’s argued, for companies to make unsafe cars, pollute our air, or pillage shared resources.

Actions have consequences, he’s pointed out with persistence and eloquence. Now, he’s taking the opposite tack, fixating on his own absolute right to do whatever he chooses, while branding those who’ve argued against his running as contemptuous censors, who “want to block the American people from having more choices and voices.”

This argument would seem familiar coming from an Exxon executive. Coming from Ralph Nader, it marks a fundamental shift from an ethic of responsibility to one of damn the consequences, no matter

S T R E E T V I B E S March, 2004

will be the focus of anti-war rallies on March 20 in New York and around the country. The date was chosen by the United For Peace and Justice organizers because it is the first anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.

One protest will feature military families in Fayetteville, North Carolina, with the “September Eleventh Families For Peaceful Tomorrow’s” group, whose members lost loved ones in the 2001 hijacked plane attacks on America.

New York activists organized one of the largest antiwar rallies on February 15, 2003, when hundreds of thousands took to the streets to oppose the war over Iraq’s purported weapons of mass destruction. Weapons stockpiles have not been found and how much populist precedent he tries to dress it up with.

The reasons to defeat Bush escalate daily. This regime enacts massively regressive tax cuts, wages pre-emptive wars and lies about their justification, smashes civil liberties and appoints hard-right judges to shut down any challenges, and does their best to totally destroy the union movement.

They attack root structures of democracy by disenfranchising tens of thousands of Florida voters, redistricting dozens of Texas, Pennsylvania and Michigan Congressional seats in raw power grabs, and jamming Democratic

the works for further improvements, such as kitchens on each floor and better meeting rooms for case management and substance abuse programs There are various approaches to assisting an individual out of homelessness.

Some see providing and helping pay for an affordable apartment as the best way. Others see basic shelter that provides a safe place with access to structured programs and permanent housing as the best option. As we left the shelter that night, a woman stopped a member of our group to complain about conditions inside. She did admit, though, that it was a huge improvement over the previous women’s shelter. Shelter life is difficult and there will always be complaints. Cleveland’s Community Women’s Shelter and its staff are at least working to improve conditions. We can hope that, for some women, this facility might be the answer. more than 500 Americans and thousands of Iraqis have been killed.

“The intensity of interest is different than it was before the war began,” said Bill Dobbs of United For Peace and Justice. “For months, there has been a quiet vindication of our position, but we still need to send a clear message against Bush policies.”

A spokesman for another activist organization, Campaign to Demilitarize the Police, said it planned monthly demonstrations through the convention to highlight police conduct at rallies.

Last month, 52 anti-war protesters sued the New York Police Department and said officers unlawfully arrested peaceful protesters and detained them for up to 12 hours after an April 7, 2003 rally, only to dismiss all the charges. phone banks in New Hampshire.

They brand all who oppose them as allies of terrorism.

That doesn’t even count global warming, which (as sources from Fortune Magazine to the New York Times and a Pentagon study have recently warned) now brings the potential for melting polar ice caps to shut down the Gulf Stream and plunge Europe and Northeastern North America into a man-made ice age.

This election may decide the very habitability of our planet. How

Ranger... cont. on page 12 Page 7

Page 7

by Jamie Poque Ohio Congressman and Presidential Candidate Dennis J. Kucinich visited Buddy¹s Place in the inner-city neighborhood of Over-the-Rhine as part of a campaign stop in Cincinnati last month.

He talked briefly about how impressed and inspired he was by the work of Buddy Gray and RESTOC and by what they have done for the Over-the-Rhine community.

He said that the work done by Buddy Gray shows “the capacity for one individual to unite a neighborhood and make a difference.”

Congressman Kucinich then fielded questions on issues ranging from his “Department of Peace” proposal, to a question about a possible U.S. conspiracy to blow up the World Trade Center, to economic issues like healthcare and jobs from the

crowd of about fifty gathered together in the Miami Center for Community Engagement meeting space of Buddy’s Place.

Kucinich also spoke about the need to “create change at the voting booth. War is not inevitable. We have come to think of it as inevitable and it is not,” said Kucinich, in reference to the war in Iraq, citing the loss of lives of both Americans in service, and Iraqi citizens.

The Cleveland-area congressman talked at length about the issue of affordable housing, something especially relevant to the crowd of people in attendance, most of whom live or work in poverty-stricken Over-the-Rhine, one of the neighborhoods where many of the city¹s homeless and low-income people reside.

He said that, “the government has an obligation to see that every person has a roof

I resolve to speak ill of no man whatever, not even in a matter of truth; but rather by some means excuse the faults I hear charged upon others, and upon proper occasions speak all the good I know of everybody. Benjamin Franklin

Community Resource Cards

Rockdale Temple has announced the release of the latest in its series of Community Resource Cards. The new one, printed in Spanish, is customized for the needs of Cincinnati’s rapidly growing Hispanic/Latino population.

The tri-fold, plastic cards are funded by the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati as a project of Rockdale Temple, in consultation with Bienstar, Su Casa and The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless.

In addition to the Hispanic Resource Card, the Resource Card Project has also produced cards for senior citizens, the homeless, and public school and Catholic school students covering the Tri-state area.

Cards can be ordered from: CC 5300 Hamilton Avenue, #210 Cincinnati, Ohio 45224 - or send a fax request to: (513) 541-0099

S T R E E T V I B E S March, 2004

Jimmy Heath photos

Presidential Hopeful Dennis Kucinich Visits Over-the-Rhine

over their head.”

Congressman Kucinich has faced pressure to drop out of the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination in order to allow the front runner to focus on the general election, but addressing these concerns, he said unequivocally “I’m not leaving.”

Presidential candidate Howard Dean has dropped out of the race leaving Kucinch and Al Sharpton trailing far behind in third place.

Congressman Kucinich also made appearances at a fundraising dinner in Clifton and at the University of Cincinnati, where he outlined his plans for affordable housing, employment and fair trade.

Buddy’s Place, a project of ReSTOC, provides the Center for Community Engagement storefront to Miami University. The building also provides 20 units of housing to persons who were previously homeless.

Streetvibes Vendor Code of Conduct All Vendors Sign and Agree to a Code of Conduct Report Any Violations to GCCH - 421-7803 1. Streetvibes will be distributed for a $1 voluntary donation. If a customer donates more than $1 for a paper, vendors are allowed to keep that donation. However, vendors must never ask for more than $1 when selling Streetvibes.

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Page 8

The Sun Will Come Out and women who had a

by Ms Mary Gaffney, determination and a faith. Some Greater Cincinnati Coalition for of their work was not easy, with the Homeless climbing and To the walking up on readers and the road of life. purchasers of I know at times Streetvibes paper, that the people welcome to the had a rough spot third month in the in their road, but year 2004! were able to go While around it, and sitting here by my now have living room Ms. Mary Gaffney caught the window, one glimpse of reaching for the stars minute it is snowing, the next minute it is raining. And before I by gaining some position in life.

As I first stated, there was got up from my chair, I looked up first darkness and dreariness. and could see that the clouds Before you know it, the sun seemed to be parting, and there comes out. We all have dark was a little ray of sunshine. And before I could turn around, lo and days, but we must keep traveling.

Know as you travel with faith that behold, the clouds were gone. before you know it, there is the The sun was out, bright as ever, sun shining bright. I know the with strong rays of warmth. I sun doesn’t shine bright all the began to think that this was like time. If it did, could we accept it? life, especially like my homeless friends. Oh, you might say “there Could the earth accept it?

If you could take a she goes again!” Yes, because I moment and think of the life of enjoy being around them. my friends who need help. How For six years, off and on, I’ve been with them, helping them they have to accept life, good or bad. There is sometimes no work and getting to know them. And I or other things, but they try to really know them, when they are remain happy. down or don’t care or even when I always say, it doesn’t they are a little bit happy. I can still talk with them and give them cost much to give a smile, and if they approach you, take the time a smile. Some even call me and opportunity to speak to them. “mom”, “granny” or “miss”. I answer them and tell them to keep You never know what is in the future. the determination, for there’s a We are all the children brighter day ahead, if you just placed in this garden of life who keep the faith. must brave hard weather, wind, On a Thursday of last month, I was the guest at a Xavier rain and storms. Remember, for every dark cloud there is a silver University luncheon called lining. Until next time remember, “Reaching for the Stars, 2004”.

God loves you and me – all races, The event honored emerging creeds and colors.

Cincinnati leaders, young men

Progress

he came forth out of slavery like a man just woke up from sleep.

by Ms. Mary Gaffney Since that length of time, The following is a speech just think how the colored race has

by Mrs. Nazarine Procter, given at progressed, built churches, New Hope A. M. E. Church in Ft. colleges and organized societies.

Gaines, Georgia, in 1945.

We have in the State of Georgia, Man comes into this world Bishops, Presiding Elders, without his consent, and preachers, teachers, leaves it again without doctors, undertakers, his will. During his stay and many other on earth his time is positions the colored spent in one continuous man can hold not only round. in Georgia, but Let us take a throughout the United view of the path we States of America. have trodden since This view represents freedom. It had been 82 the Negro at the years since Abraham Nazarine Procter present time.

Lincoln gave to the For a world his immortal proclamation, thousand years in Thy sight is but and for a time we have enjoyed yesterday. Now in conclusion, freedom, however imperfect it may members of the Church of God have been. Have we shown and society, build your hope upon ourselves worthy of it? Thanks be Jesus Christ, the Solid Rock, that to God, we are not our own when the storms of life is raging, judges. The world has set in and the foaming billows are judgment against us. We have risen dashing, we can confidentially say, since the last 82 years of our life in on Christ the Solid Rock I stand, acts, but what of the future? What all other ground is sinking sand. has time brought us to?

The work of our race is Out of clutter, find twofold; subjective and objective. simplicity. From discord, Let us look at the Negro at the find harmony. In the close of the war; look at him middle of difficulty, lies walking out from under bondage with not anything in his head, his opportunity. hand, his heart, or his pocket. And Albert Einstein on the first day of January, 1963,

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S T R E E T V I B E S March, 2004

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Page 9

Cincinnati Inner-city Children Share Their Lives Through Photography Exhibit A photography exhibit showing the lives of inner-city children in Cincinnati was held last month at the Kid’s Café at Our Daily Bread soup kitchen in Over-the-Rhine. Parents and teachers came to the exhibit to see the display of writing and photography created by the children. The exhibit was the culmination of a week’s long project that engaged the Kid’s Café children in photography and writing. The photos and the combined writing showed the lives of inner-city children from their own perspective. Kids were encouraged to take photos that reflected their life and surroundings, including family, friends, pets and environment.

Volunteers from Ursuline Academy in Blue Ash, headed up by student Molly Berendt, organized the photography project for the children at Kid’s Café, with lessons and discussions that took place throughout the month of January. The program was designed to promote an increased awareness of life in Over-the-Rhine and also give inner-city children the opportunity to develop photography and writing skills under the teaching of Over-theRhine photojournalist, Jimmy Heath.

Each child was given a one-time use camera along with a list of possible subjects to

photograph. After taking all the photographs, the children were led through exercises that enabled them to express the meaning and significance of their photographs through writing. The photographs were developed and each child created a piece of art around their favorite photos to show at the exhibit. The photomontages were put into frames and displayed alongside the children’s writing exercises.

“This was such a wonderful experience for these children,” says Molly Berendt, a junior at Ursuline Academy and Beth Cadle, Senior at Ursuline Academy, with Alexandria volunteer at Kid’s Café. “They had so much fun and will appreciate their artwork forever. The exhibit will be a chance for each child to display his or her photographs and it gives the public a chance to have a glimpse of a child’s life in Overthe-Rhine.”

The photos, along with the children’s writings, are also scheduled to be displayed at Peaslee Neighborhood Center in Over-theMolly Berendt, of Ursuline Academy works with Nicholas, age 4 on his photography Rhine and at Ursuline Academy in project Blue Ash.

Homeless Awareness Week Join the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless during the week of May 10 – 14 during our Homeless Awareness Week. All week long, fun and informative events will be held for the public. Look for more details in the April issue of Streetvibes....

Monday, May 10 – Movie Night. Join us for a showing of Dark Days, a film about homeless men and women living in abandoned train tunnels in New York City. A discussion by formerly homeless Cincinnatians will follow.

Tuesday, May 11 – Homeless Civil Rights Day.

S T R E E T V I B E S March, 2004

May 10 – 14, 2004

The rights of homeless individuals are being disregarded in many cities across the US. You can help by attending this informative event and taking part in our simple, yet effective actions.

Wednesday, May 12 – Book Club. Pick up a copy of The Street Lawyer by John Grisham and join us for our book club. We’ll discuss the book and how it relates to real homeless issues right here in Cincinnati.

Thursday, May 13 – Armchair Advocate Day. Fight to end homelessness without leaving your own home (instructions in next month’s Streetvibes)!

Friday, May 14 – Homeless Awareness Concert.

Local performers will make this a wonderful closing event. Soul Mission Chorale, Winton Woods High School Choir, Stepp’n Out, and NuVue gospel singing group are just some of the performers scheduled.

Bits & Pieces

Page 10

by Jimmy Heath In spite of a federal lawsuit filed against the City of Cincinnati on behalf of former tenants of Huntington Meadows and investors, the project to tear down and replace the now-abandoned housing units with new up-scale condos won City Council support.

Over one-thousand units of affordable housing will be lost when the project is completed.

Last month, Cincinnati City Council voted 7-1 in favor of the plan, a day after former tenants filed a federal lawsuit claiming the city conspired to evict residents to free up the site for upscale housing. The goal of the lawsuit was to stop the vote and compensate those forced out.

The suit also accused Vice Mayor Alicia Reece of using her power for the financial benefit of herself, her family, and her friends.

The suit said the plans to develop the Huntington Meadows site were calculated and designed to improve the value of nearby property owned by Alicia Reece’s father, Steve Reece, while harming African American females living at the housing complex.

wrote, “I categorically deny these false allegations. This is nothing more than a pattern of malicious, slanderous, and false allegations filled with ‘personal attacks’ by certain attorneys designed to defame my name in the community. I will continue to fight for neighborhood development throughout our city.”

“We want progress in this city,” said Jennifer Kinsley, the residents’ attorney. “What we are trying to stop is development on the backs of the residents evicted from this property.”

With plans by two local churches to turn the property into several hundred houses and condos, attorneys who filed the lawsuit said a number of people stand to benefit from the deal, including the churches which planned to invest less than $500,000 of their own cash in the project. About $14 million of taxpayers’ money will be used to build the new single family houses in the Bond Hill neighborhood of Cincinnati.

Jimmy Heath photos

City Council Approves Plan For Huntington Meadows In a statement to Development local news, Alicia Reece

But Mayor Charlie Luken vowed the lawsuit would not halt progress on the project or interfere with council’s vote. “We will not be discouraged by frivolous lawsuits,” Luken said. City Council voted to give the two local churches control of the nearly $14 million to develop the nowabandoned apartments.

Until it shut down about 18 months ago, Huntington Meadows was the largest privately owned apartment complex in Cincinnati with over 1000 rental units. The tenants were evicted after the management company said residents faced the dangers of mold, sewage, asbestos and other health problems. The city plans to buy the land and demolish the Huntington Meadows apartments. The land will be turned over to the two community churches. The lots will be sold to potential homeowners and builders.

Many previous city redevelopment efforts have failed. Mayor Charlie Luken said the city manager has

safeguards in place to make sure the city watches how its money is spent.

“I think we’ve all learned a little bit about having some confidence in the people who are making the decisions. I think for too long we just put people at desks. They just filed papers. They didn’t look carefully at things. I think with Valerie Lemmie, she’s changed all that,” Mayor Luken said.

Council member John Cranley cast the only vote against the plan. Council member Pat DeWine was unable to cast a vote because of a conflict of interest.

The proposal had ample support from members of the two churches involved in the redevelopment plan.

Mayor Charlie Luken issued a statement that “the city intends to move forward with the housing development, and we will not be deterred by those who have no interest in helping the city and its neighborhoods.”

Reverend Jordan from the Allen Temple, one of the developers, called the allegations outlined in the lawsuit “ridiculous.”

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S T R E E T V I B E S March, 2004

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Page 11

Haiti’s Collapse

supporting and perhaps leading the current chaos. But in hundreds, perhaps thousands, of instances, it is Aristide’s own toughs who have turned against him. Someone has convinced them that he no longer represents Haiti’s future; no doubt someone with money. In a country as poor as Haiti, the man with more money to spend will win in the end (as in the favelas of Brazil and the slums of Colombia), because it is so very hard to maintain the high moral ground when no one’s paying you to do it and the kids are starving back in the village or your one-room shack.

And the miserable street – with its thugs and its slumdwellers, with its students and bricklayers and flat-tire fixers and car-wash boys, with its orphans and preachers and market ladies and tap-tap drivers, with its cart-pullers and trough-cleaners, its seamstresses and tailors, its cockfighters and garbage-pickers, numbers-runners, whores and money-changers – is Haiti’s political steamroller. The gods must help the Haitian politician the street has finally turned against – nothing else will. It will be interesting to see who will reward the “resistance” for its courage, and how. If Aristide must fall, let us hope still for real, meaningful elections in Haiti, soon. But let us not expect them.

Amy Wilentz, an associate professor of journalism at Columbia University, is the author of ‘The Rainy Season: Haiti Since Duvalier’ (Simon & Schuster, 1989).

by Amy Wilentz The Aristide administration, which has been overthrown once already, has been egalitarian in the lives destroyed during its time: Among its dead can be counted the president’s former friends and his foes, democrats and supporters of dictatorship. Among the victims have been policemen and prisoners and politicians; rich men and poor, journalists and slum-dwellers, human-rights workers and doctors and businessmen. Almost no sector has been untouched.

No one can argue that JeanBertrand Aristide’s presidency has been in any way successful other than this: It exists. He was elected in 1990 with enormous hope by an overwhelming majority in a legitimate election – and quickly overthrown by the Haitian Army and its friends. In 1994 he was returned to power through the good will of the Clinton Administration, in the optimistic expectation that he would be able to turn Haiti around. He was not able to do so for a combination of reasons, some political, some personal and most having to do with his inability to conduct a happy relationship either with the Bush Administration or with his own business and intellectual elite.

Washington also cut off huge portions of aid, which cannot have helped Aristide’s standing. Still, a fatal combination of arrogance and naïveté on his part made Aristide’s difficult position much more intractable. Meanwhile, the Haitian opposition has been coddled and pushed toward the depths of

intransigence by Aristide’s detractors in the US government, in both Haiti and in Washington.

By now, with the country well on its way to chaos, many argue that Aristide has exhausted the electorate’s patience and must be replaced.

Yet now – as he finally begins to recognize how powerful the opposition has become despite all his political jockeying and playacting – should be the time for all friends of Haiti, especially in the US government, to support Aristide’s continuation at the helm: not because he is good but because he is president. Aristide is a transitional figure and not the best of these. He is no Mandela, and he does not have the political maturity to control the violent forces that swirl through Haitian politics – no easy job. Yet the future of Haiti hinges on support for institutions and for a state based on law.

As part of the unrest, a gang element managed to take over Gonaïves, one of Haiti’s largest cities – a ramshackle affair of shantytowns and gingerbread houses atop salt flats and roads made undrivable by potholes, with few enough institutions as it is.

This gang, which styles itself the Cannibal Army or, in its latest incarnation, the Artibonite Resistance Front (perhaps more palatable to the international community), has burned down the courthouse and the prison in Gonaïves, released the prison population and forced the mayor to flee. Though there may be elaborate and in some cases good

excuses for these actions, taken as a trend they do not bode well for the rule of law. In the wake of the Gonaïves takeover, ten lesser cities have fallen to such forces, each in differing circumstances but all motivated by encouragement from sectors of the opposition and by the sense that Aristide is about to fall.

That will not be helped by State Department spokesman Richard Boucher’s hints on February 9 that a solution to the situation might not necessarily include President Aristide. Three of the towns have been retaken by the government.

The numbers of Aristide’s detractors, their unwillingness to stop their protests even in the face of police brutality and killings and their takeover of Gonaïves and other towns have brought a new humility to Aristide, which sits rather uncomfortably on his proud shoulders. Still, the situation has been volatile enough to force him to make necessary concessions, under pressure from the Organization of American States and Caribbean Community, to the opposition. Because the opposition is swollen with self-importance in the wake of so many bloody victories in the countryside, it may not respond to Aristide’s eleventhhour overtures. It was not moved by a huge outpouring of support for him in the streets of Port-auPrince on the recent anniversary of the fall of Duvalier.

When Aristide returned to power, he bravely disbanded the Haitian Army and then promptly permitted a kind of mass civilian militarization without insuring his continuing control over it. A remnant of the old army is

Ranger...

Bush’s regime with Nazis, but splintered votes can produce Terrible consequences.)

Nader seems to have forgotten his own historical contribution to a different, more hopeful path, where he encouraged thousands of citizens to join in challenging illegitimate actions of power. He once recognized that progressive politics gathers its strength from the breadth of citizen movements.

Now he acts, with an almost messianic fervor, a Lone Ranger intent on holding on to his own moral purity whatever the pleas of his compatriots and whatever the cost to the planet. By denying the real choices we face, he betrays the best of his legacy. Will Nader’s candidacy ultimately matter? Many of his supporters have bolted. He may not get on the ballot in every state.

But if the election is close enough, his candidacy could still have a tragic impact. We all know the Florida numbers. We forget that the Nader vote made the difference

in New Hampshire as well, and that him blindly. his support in states like Oregon, As we work to challenge’s Washington, Wisconsin, New Bush’s lies and to reach out to our Mexico, and even California forced fellow citizens, we can build Al Gore to divert time, money and autonomous community. We can resources away from other close connect with coworkers and races he might well have otherwise neighbors, work to unite historically won. separated progressive movements, As a leader in the keep raising core issues no matter conservative group Concerned who’s elected in November. We Women for America recently told the don’t have to be true believers. But Washington Times, the Bush ticket we’re faced with as critical a choice may be in trouble, and they need a and challenge as we’ve experienced Nader alternative “to draw in our lifetime. It’s too bad that by Democratic votes away from the prizing his own righteousness over Democratic candidate.” the risks of his actions, Ralph Nader Because the more strongly has just made that challenge a little Nader campaigns, the more time, bit harder. money, and energy we’ll all have to divert away from the prime task of defeating Bush.

(Business Card Size, ad ready copy) Assuming the Reach 18,000 customers per month admittedly flawed John Kerry becomes the Call Streetvibes @ 421-7803 Democratic nominee, we don’t have to support

cont. from page 7 can Nader know this and still run?

He says he’ll raise the otherwise buried hard issues.

He says he’ll bring disenchanted citizens back into politics. He offers Byzantine explanations of how he’ll actually help defeat George Bush by raising fresh subjects and approaches, opening up “a second front of voters against the regime,” and offering an alternative for moderate Republicans.

But he can raise the issues on his own, as he has throughout his life. He can do it without his every critique of the “two-party duopoly” driving people away from voting for the Democratic nominee.

He can do it without offering the illusion that a purely symbolic vote will do anything to get Bush out of office. (I keep thinking about the endless political infighting that helped Hitler rise to power, culminating in the German Communist Party’s ghastly slogan, “After Hitler, us.” I’m not equating

S T R E E T V I B E S March, 2004

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Ohio Empowerment Coalition Joins in “Presidential Dialogue With America’s Families”

by Lynn Williams, OEC Organizer, with background information from Center for Community Change On January 29 the Ohio Empowerment Coalition traveled 512 miles to Columbia, South Carolina, to join over a hundred other community and neighborhood organizations, in addressing the Democratic presidential candidates. This event, the “Dialogue with America’s Families” was co-produced by the People’s Agenda for Economic Justice and the Center for Community Change (www.communitychange.org) in association with radio host Tom Joyner. The Dialogue was carried live from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 pm on the largest NBC affiliate in the state, WIS-TV, as well as C-SPAN and MSNBC. Members of the Ohio Empowerment Coalition from Cincinnati, Athens, Cleveland, Dayton and Adams County, as well as participants from Columbus, Blanchester and Greenfield, boarded the bus that left from the Contact Center in Cincinnati. Most bus riders were from the Cincinnati Welfare Rights Coalition. “We want the Presidential candidates to take seriously the needs of poor families in this country. We want changes made in welfare laws that will help families get out of poverty, not throw them deeper in debt. We want answers!” stated th

Catrina Weber, co-chair of the Cincinnati Welfare Rights Coalition, before boarding the bus.

The Center for Community Change’s “Presidential Dialogue with America’s Families” was the grassroots kickoff for the Center’s Community Voting Project to elevate the voices and issues of low-income families through voter registration and mobilization in 2004 and beyond. Over 3000 leaders from South Carolina, Ohio, Georgia, Illinois, Mississippi, North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Montana descended on Columbia in solidarity that poverty issues be vigorously brought to the consciousness of Presidential candidates and the public eye.

All Democratic Presidential candidates except Sen. Lieberman attended the Dialogue and fielded questions. President Bush was also invited but did not attend. The Dialogue consisted of individuals directly affected by government policies on Medicaid, TANF, public education, NAFTA, immigrant policies, and the military’s occupation of Iraq. The Dialogue gave low-income people the rare opportunity to pose questions directly to the candidates. It gave unparalleled public attention to low-income issues within the context of a presidential election.

After the Dialogue, participants boarded buses to rev up support for voter registration and voting in the primary

Letting Rumsfeld Set the Rules

by Jim Naureckas The Washington Post (11/0/ 03) described an unusual arrangement between the Pentagon and 18 local TV stations across the country: In exchange for being allowed to interview Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the stations agreed to also air interviews with three or four other Pentagon officials, like Paul Wolfowitz and Paul Bremer.

One should always question when government officials dictate to news outlets how they will be covered. And particularly for local TV news, which rarely covers national politics, interviews with four or five different people giving the same point of view is a large price to pay for getting access to a public official.

But Rumsfeld is not just

any official; he’s an official with a clear track record of obfuscation and denying reality. To cite just one example: In a September 25 interview, a reporter from Sinclair Broadcasting said to Rumsfeld, “Before the war in Iraq... you said they would welcome us with open arms.” Rumsfeld responded with a denial: “Never said that.... Never did. You may remember it well, but you’re thinking of somebody else.

You can’t find anywhere me saying anything like [that].... I never said anything like that because I never knew what would happen and I knew I didn’t know.”

But on February 20, Rumsfeld was asked by PBS’s Jim Lehrer: “Do you expect the invasion, if it comes, to be welcomed by the majority of the civilian population of Iraq?” And Rumsfeld responded: “There is no

S T R E E T V I B E S March, 2004

throughout Columbia. In South Carolina the primary was the following Tuesday.

On the way back to Cincinnati participants on the bus spoke with enthusiasm of the event. “This was really worth while to go to. I feel that people from across the country were unified in expressing the needs and

concerns of low-income people. I wish I could have taken my children because this would have shown them first hand the democratic process and what it means to be a citizen in our country. We each matter too!” stated one participant.

For more information contact the Ohio Empowerment Coalition at 1877-862-5179.

question but that they would be welcomed. Go back to Afghanistan—the people were in the streets playing music, cheering, flying kites, and doing all the things that the Taliban and the Al Qaeda would not let them do.”

Eric Rosenberg of Hearst Newspapers (11/9/03), who pointed out this contradiction, also noted that Rumsfeld has denied statements he made concerning Iraq’s supposed “large clandestine stockpiles” of chemical and biological weapons (House Armed Services Committee, 9/18/02); later, when asked whether he had been wrong to claim that Iraq had “extensive stocks” of such weapons (Pentagon briefing, 10/30/ 03), Rumsfeld retorted: “You go back and give me something that talks about extensive stocks.... I’d be surprised if you found the word ‘extensive.’”

If you can’t trust a person to acknowledge his own words, can you really trust him to accurately convey the complex reality of what’s going on in Iraq?

Instead of following Rumsfeld with three or four of his subordinates, TV news should put on some independent experts who can set the record straight.

(212) 633-6700 http://www.fair.org/ E-mail: fair@fair.org

GCCH News

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you everybody else, means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting. e.e.cummings

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Page 13

Page 13

I’m Not Alone

THAT’S JUST A LITTLE RUDE

by Robert Manassa They seem so dreary, the problems of today They’re taking all the poor people rights away They’ve ended welfare, they’ve cut SSI, low-income housing programs are in disarray.

There are no treatment centers, shelters are shuttin’ down.

We can’t even sleep on park benches, even there they push us around In Atlanta, it’s really getting dark, you might just go to prison for sleeping in the park.

As poor people struggle from town to town, they see new stadiums opening, and schools and churches closing down.

While they use a poor man’s tax dollars to bailout S&L’S Their not building him houses, they only building jails.

While the poor can help pay for battleships or other weapons of war, their told money to help themselves isn’t available anymore.

While the working poor help pay farmers not to grow any food They’re the one’s who are starving and that’s just a little rude!!!

I wake up this morning, singing a new song.

I even took the time out to thank the Lord.

I’ve been reborn There’s not a day or nite that passes me by That I don’t send up praises to the Lord on high.

I know that I have all my sins forgiven me.

I have my Heavenly Father above, Watching over me continuously.

I never, ever worry; I don’t have to fret, I have someone walking and talking with me.

He’s never left me, nor has he failed me yet, I’m not alone.

Bring Our Children Home

On The Brink

by Vera Zlatkin

by Anthony Wayne Stone to all those who cannot or will not understand me

These Bones will Rise Again - until we all have homes again (inspired by traditional “them bones will rise again”)

by Melissa Tuckey Over the Rhine is under attack by the rich who neglected her and now want her back. and everywhere i look i see the signs of war, led by bankers and bulldozers and greed to consume more. buddy gray was a friend of mine he was under attack for feeding the hungry and teaching them to fight back for loving the children of Over-theRhine for standing in the way while others just stood by You can kill buddy gray but not Over-the-Rhine the spirit that lives here continues to rise these bones will rise again these bones will rise again these homes will rise again these homes will rise again the sun will shine again in over the rhine again you can kill buddy gray but not Over-the-Rhine the spirit that lives here has been around a long time these bones will rise again these bones will rise again until we all have homes again until we all have homes again.

In loving memory of buddy gray, may his spirit live on, always

as i drink the drink that brings eternal life, i realize th ethings i’ve done to my self since i first took the drink of the dark and dead, that drove me to the brink of insanity, so that i must drink to regain my santiy, even though now, the wish for life eternal is now lost, barely holding onto sanity as i drain the life force of the immortal criminal who sought my life and wallet, and who now hears the sound of his last minutes on earth, this is the brink, and as you stare at me, i can see that insanity is even closer, for if i am to survive, one must die, you or me.

In This Deadend submitted by Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan They smell your breath.

You better not have said, “I love you.”

They smell your heart.

These are strange times, darling...

And they flog love at the roadblock.

We had better hide love in the closet...

In this crooked dead end and twisting chill, they feed the fire with the kindling of song and poetry.

Do not risk a thought.

These are strange times, darling...

He who knocks on the door at midnight has come to kill the light.

We had better hide light in the closet...

Those there are butchers stationed at the crossroads With bloody clubs and cleavers.

These are strange times, darling... and they excise smiles from lips and songs from mouths.

We had better hide joy in the closet...

Canaries barbecued on a fire of lilies and jasmine, these are strange times, darling...

Satan drunk with victory sits at our funeral feast.

We had better hide God in the closet.

S T R E E T V I B E S March, 2004

Someone’s heart is broken, Another daughter dies.

Somebody’s father won’t come home; Somewhere a family cries.

Five hundred now and counting.

Today – eleven more.

How many people have to die Before we end this war?

Strangers in a distant land, Our children kill and die Learning hoe to hate and fear, Never knowing why.

Six hundred soon will be the toll; The wounded- many more.

And the number of Iraqi’s killed Is someone keeping score?

A soldier draws his final breath, With comrades standing by.

Along a road a bomb explodes And seven people die.

One expert says, “at least three years”; Another, “nearly ten”.

How long? My God, How Long!

Before We bring them home again?

Darkness

by D-Von Sanders There is darkness on the surface of the deep But is the darkness really bad Because with light comes life then death and emotions Of pain and suffering, for the things you’ve never had So is the darkness really bad?

We was born in darkness of the womb Of our Mother Earth, and we will return to Darkness Until the dawn of our new birth So is the darkness really bad?

No I don’t think so Because in the Darkness there is peace From Heaven above and Hell below

Art & Poetry

Page 14

Crows Awaken

For information on submitting your poetry or art to STREETVIBES email Streetvibes@juno.com

by Michael Henson

Two crows awaken in the snow at dawn.

All night, they have roosted on an iron truss of the television tower.

All night, the red light at the peak of the tower pulsed in their dream like a bolus of radiant blood.

Now, they shake the snow from their shoulders and stretch their wings and legs.

They are cold at the claw, cold in the joints.

Snow stretches all around them, caked in the branches of the trees, along the power lines, and in the untracked street.

They call, they call to warm themselves, then lift from the iron roost to feel the cold air under their wings.

The city roars with traffic.

The cables hum with messages.

Even the trusses of the tower thrum with an electric mumble.

But other birds hear the call of the birds and they answer.

Soon the hillside rattles with the gravel of their voices.

Up in the crow-patterned air they greet and they are greeted.

They call again and call again joyous, wild.

Death by Detachment

by JH What is this other world on the Corner?

Of violent and menacing gestures, and growling peril.

And bloated pockets, filled with danger.

The bulky shells, and anger gone wild, fills the street with deadly void, inside and outside the soul, with and without spirit.

Ways of My Heart

by Anthony Wayne Stone when you look at my heart, please know that its shape is sharp, with the edges of a razor, quick to cut. when you look at my heart, please know that its color is still red, though it is darker than most, and yet, i’ve known darker. people are afraid to be around me, afraid of things they cannot yet see, afraid to love me, because a dark love is all i can give, and yet they refuse me, when i ask them to teach me this love that they preach to me, this love that is light to the heart, this bright love that they speak so fondly of.

Clashing on the gray, the staggering limbs askew, twirling, menacing, frightened, of the blue and white shadow.

Tomorrow is a hazard, out of reach, on a dusty shelf.

Beyond the dream of home, and mom, and warming family.

To get there is a nonsense dream, in TV land and liars, peddling another place, a vision beyond reach.

so before you judge me, look at your own heart, and see how it grows, and tell me what it is that you find.

Shutter Speed

by Jimmy Heath

Street Musicians, 7th and Vine Street, Downtown Cincinnati

S T R E E T V I B E S March, 2004

Art & Poetry

Page 15

Page 15

Hard-core homeless prefer the outdoors

by Rachel D’Oro Ron Feldhouse draws the line at 45 degrees below zero.

Then it’s time to sleep indoors.

Otherwise, the 47-year-old man sets up camp in the woods outside Fairbanks, where winter temperatures can hover around minus-20 or colder for weeks at a stretch.

Dealing with extreme elements is the norm for Feldhouse and other hard-core homeless Alaskans who live outdoors in weather so cold it can be easily fatal for the unprepared.

“It’s a learned art,” Feldhouse said. “After a while, you just start getting used to it.”

Many of Alaska’s indigent a population that’s difficult to measure - cope by drifting from couch to couch or sleeping in motels, cars, boats and homeless shelters in the state’s larger cities.

But a small number say they prefer dealing with the bitter cold to following rules at shelters, which offer limited stays, forbid the use of alcohol and drugs and impose strict curfews.

Ed Heeckt arrived in Alaska a year ago from Arlington, Washington, settling in Juneau where he got a short-lived job processing fish for $8.50 an hour. He stayed at the Glory Hole, a local shelter, for a week, but hated the cramped quarters.

Unable to afford even the cheapest rent, he set up a hand-medown tent among spruce and alder

trees at an abandoned mining site just outside downtown Juneau. In the summer, he has a perfect view of the cruise ships that frequent the Southeast Alaska town.

“I can’t handle the snoring and the smelly feet of a shelter,” said Heeckt, 36. “But I’m very independent and I can survive anywhere.”

Practiced campers say it’s not that hard to stay warm - it just takes a little ingenuity.

They dig caves out of snow mounds, pack snow high around outer tent walls for insulation, and line inner edges with clothing.

Some burrow in trash bins or curl up in doorways.

On cold nights, Heeckt burns a can of gel fuel inside his tent for 10 minutes to get it “nice and warm.” He puts on layers of shirts, pants, a couple pairs of socks and a hat before diving into his mummy-style sleeping bag, which is sandwiched between a plastic foam pad and a pile of blankets.

Feldhouse, who’s been without a permanent home in Alaska and North Dakota for 25 years, is a regular at several Fairbanks coffee shops. When temperatures plummet, he can be found inside long past midnight, nursing a cup of coffee before heading to his camp on his bicycle.

“People ask me, ‘Don’t you get cold?’ No, not really, only when I get out of my sleeping bag,” he said. “I just don’t like

being tied down. Living like this lightens the load. I don’t have to answer to anybody, don’t have bills to pay.”

In Anchorage, a city of 274,000, agencies that work with the homeless estimate between 8,000 and 10,000 people find themselves without a permanent roof at least temporarily over any given year.

Only a fraction end up at one of the 35 makeshift camps currently well-hidden around the city and its suburbs. The number of camps fluctuates as authorities make periodic sweeps.

Many campers are Alaska Natives, said Norma Carter, social services director of Bean’s Cafe, a day shelter and soup kitchen. She knows a 92-year-old man who grudgingly moved into a subsidized assisted-living home three months ago.

The elderly man, who grew up in a Western Alaska village, told Carter he misses his old life.

“I think it’s a cultural thing in some cases, where people are accustomed to taking a boat up the river and sleeping on the bank, under the stars,” she said. “For others, it’s just not having money, not wanting to be found. There are different reasons why people camp.”

It’s a choice for Ellamae Clark, who has camped in Anchorage for nine years. She shares a site with her boyfriend and six other men. They sleep four to a

tent, which goes a long way to staying warm. Clark said they all drink heavily, so watching each other is crucial to avoid freezing to death.

Clark, 43, said she rarely feels the cold, having grown up in the village of Selawik above the Arctic Circle.

“I even sleep in shorts,” she said. “For me, it’s an easy life.

Having a camp is harder in the summer because you have to watch out for teenagers who want to vandalize it. In the summer, it gets too hot.”

Chronic homelessness is almost unheard of in rural villages, where few people are strangers.

That applies even to the southwestern hub of Bethel - a largely Yupik Eskimo town of 5,900 people that serves as the regional center for 56 villages in the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta.

“Yupik society is pretty generous,” said Bob Herron, Bethel’s city manager. “If your second cousin is in need, society out here will take care of them.

You can pretty much get help.”

Most of Alaska’s homeless wind up in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau and other urban areas, where shelters, public transportation, job opportunities and lowincome medical care are available.

Leaving the state, however, is not an option for those who can’t scrape together the price of a oneway airplane ticket to a warmer place. But many wouldn’t want to live anywhere else, said Jetta Whittaker, director of the Juneau shelter.

“It’s certainly easier to be homeless somewhere else where it’s not as cold, where you can sleep under a bridge and it’s not life-threatening,” Whittaker said.

“But this is their home, their community.”

Streetvibes 3rd Best in North America by the North American Street Newspaper Association

Streetvibes exists as a forum for the expression of the views and opinions of our readers and supporters. The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the Streetvibes staff or the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless.

S T R E E T V I B E S March, 2004

Editorial

Page 16

Towards a Justice That Lasts

by Kathe McKenna The most common ingredient in justice systems is punishment.

The thought is that if the person who committed the crime is punished appropriately, the victim will be satisfied. Justice, on the other hand, implies a vision where the needs of the victim as well as the perpetrator are considered.

Why? Because crimes affect all of us, not just the individuals involved. The grossest example of this is the higher real estate values where the crime statistics are lowest.

The principles of restorative justice speak to this breach that crime creates within the community.

A commonly cited example of this manner of dealing with crime is the story of a teenager who robbed a local tire store. As a second offender, the young man was at risk of time in jail where, everyone agreed; his chances of becoming a more serious criminal were greater.

A mediation between the thief and the older couple who owned the store was arranged.

Step one was for the young man to learn about the impact of his crime. The immigrant couple described the effect on their tentative financial survival, but also the fear that hampered their continuing work.

The sentence agreed to by both victim and perpetrator (as well as the courts) was for the young thief to volunteer in the shop. This enabled him to repay the victims financially.

It also taught him the workings of a business; knowledge he shared with his peers. What began as restitution grew into a mentoring relationship and then a part-time job for the youthful offender and a new engagement with local teen-agers by the owners of the store.

This may seem an easy situation, but there are incidents of rape victims and their rapists who have successfully (and voluntarily) completed the process. It is important for victims to confront their attackers and to articulate the harm they have suffered. And how liberating it is when true remorse is the result. If the victim remains merely a witness or, worse, an observer of the court system dispersing punishment, there is little movement away from being just a victim. Even in capital cases, victims’ relatives will often describe the empty sense of relief or closure when the murderer is executed.

In the soup kitchen where I work, guests are often ex-offenders.

An infraction of the common rules of courtesy that we have all agreed upon results in a person being barred. This expulsion is first and foremost done to cut through the explosion. It gives the one acting badly and those affected by his behavior an opportunity to breathe

deeply. The offending party is invited to a meeting of those who experienced the incident, not for the purpose of receiving his punishment, but to explain what happened from his perspective and to hear the impact of his actions on both staff and other guests. Sometimes there is someone to whom an apology is owed and this must be done. If there appears to be genuine comprehension of the problems inherent in one’s disruptive behavior and a willingness to do better in the future, the guest is welcomed to return.

This is so much more fruitful than just imposing a certain number of days out depending on the severity of the outburst. When only punishment is inflicted, there is no opportunity for reflection on alternatives, never mind remorse.

Sometimes a guest who has committed a violent act refuses to meet with us. This is always an indication that he is not yet able to address his own behavior. Often men request a time-measured bar rather than engage in such selfexploration.

The invitation to begin to develop even this small step in selfawareness is a gift we offer to our guests. For many, it is the first time they have been given such an opportunity. It requires much more from the staff than meting out a sentence. But the effort, time, and healing brings attention to one’s unconscious habits—the first step in changing behavior. Such changes then affect the larger community, and justice is truly served.

Reprinted from the January 2004 issue of Whats Up, Boston.

S T R E E T V I B E S March, 2004

Berta’s Art Corner

“Genius of Water” - a 9 foot bronze statue stands above other statues illustrating the uses and need for water. The 43 foot tall “Tyler Davidson Memorial Fountain” was bought in Munich, Germany by Henry Probasco as a memorial to his brother-inlaw, was erected in 1871.

Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Editorial

Page 17

Page 17

Nathanial Jones: The Question Remains

by Brian Garry Would cops have administered mouth to mouth resuscitation if it was their wife or mother or child, lying on the ground, not breathing? If you will, remove from your mind, the badges and police uniforms - forgetting the color of the people involved.

Imagine six men, bludgeoning one man to death with metal poles.

The man on the ground lies dying, moaning, begging for his mama...his last word…. mama…...

What do you see? Is it just? Is it fair? Is it a destiny that you would wish upon any one?

Rich white man from Indian Hill on the ground and six low income black men brutally beating him. What would the police response to that situation be? Would it have been different than how they have treated the beating of Nathanial Jones?

Medical attention was never received The Republican controlled coroner’s office allegation that Jones was on PCP is questionable at best. Information came out that he was “on PCP” before the coroners report came out. Then on Tuesday the coroners report coincidentally matches the previous unsubstantiated allegation. Fishy.

“What’s the problem here?”

That’s a damn good question. That is the question that the second officer asked upon arrival to the White Castle the evening Nathanial Jones was murdered by the Cincinnati Police. I’ll tell you the problem. The problem is with the police attitude. They don’t value black people’s lives. They value animals over black people’s lives.

They can chase around a 1,200 pound, wild, rambunctious cow for two weeks but they can’t chase a black man a round a parking lot for 20 minutes without killing him.

They even built the cow a stable, had 24 hour watch, and brought him bales of hay to eat. They also had tranquilizer guns ready to shoot the cow.

Guilty of being happy and then encountering the Cincinnati Police: What happened between the last picture of him on the surveillance tape in the front of White Castle to when the second cop arrived and he was on the other side of White Castle? Which cop hit the remote and turned the camera back on? Why is this not revealed in the video tape? The tape does not show an officer that was not involved in the struggle?

Who could have possibly used the

alleged remote?

I interviewed two male mental health nurses concerning the treatment of Nathanial Jones.

When asked if Nathaniel should have died, both said “no.” When asked if they had restrained someone of Nathaniel’s size before, both said “yes.” When asked if they would have been able to apprehend Nathaniel both, said “yes.” When asked if they could restrain someone of Nathanial’s size without killing him one said, with jest, “it’s very rare we have to kill our patients” and the other said, satirically, “well I would hope we wouldn’t kill someone.” I then asked the nurses to comment on the behavior of the police. One nurse stated “It takes us 10-15 minutes to calm them down but the police don’t seem to have the patience to do this.” The other cited special training provided by the Ohio Mental Health Department called Crisis Intervention Services. “We have special holds and maneuvers that they teach us, to make sure the patient is safe…You think that when a patient begins to get quiet, that he is calming down, but often it is because he can not breathe.

We always make sure the patient is safe.” What if the police had waited for the force’s mental health specialist to arrive? Those cops that killed Nathaniel were not trained to deal with Nathanial Jones and therefore should never have engaged him.

What if the cops had just walked away? So what, a guy is enjoying himself at White Castle?

Since Nathanial was not committing a crime, the cops should have just left and Nathanial

would be alive. There was no evidence that he was a danger to himself or anyone else.

So, it was really a matter of ego that Nathanial Jones was killed. If Nathaniel had lunged at me, I would have backed up and moved to where he couldn’t hit me.

How would those officers have treated him if he were white?

Anyone would try to get up if they were being beaten with metal poles.

We must step up the fight.

Our tactics up to this point have been ineffective. Citizens of Cincinnati, our brothers and sisters, are still being murdered, whether by bullets or choke holds or being whacked to death. Remember, police, you are a Public Servant.

Which one of us is the public and which one of us is the servant.

If what we’ve seen on that tape is “official police policy,” then the “official police policy” is wrong. If it is “police policy” to savagely, and in a Neanderthal like manner, bludgeon one of our citizens to death, then that policy must go.

If it is part of “police policy” for six men with clubs to take out their repressed anger and frustration on a defenseless, unarmed, sick person who was in need of medical attention, then our “police policy” needs serious revision.

Clubbing him, like a group of cave men would club down a buffalo. Getting back at them with every swing, every punch, every beat down. It seems that their clubs, their phallic symbols, are making up for their inadequacies.

Something just seems backwards. An occupying force of

renegade cops is ruling our city, while our government officials sit back and wring their hands. Not one of our city government officials has even had the balls to acknowledge to us that what happened that night “was wrong”.

If they need a pair, then I’ve got an extra set they can borrow. our city council doesn’t run the city; the cops and rich people do. We elect City Council members who don’t represent us. We call protests and fifty people show up. We have become numb to the police murdering our people because it has become so common place.

The time has come for “We the People” to stand up and take the bull by the horns. This is our city, we’re gonna take it back.

Crying is not enuf. Talking is not enuf. We will win this battle. We will bow to no one. We are not afraid of Lukkken. We are not afraid of Strike-her or Fangman.

We don’t fear death. We are not afraid to die. We will charge, we will nonviolently storm city hall and take over. We will win. They will turn and run. Our principles of equality and peace will live and their principles of oppression and greed will die. They will not hurt any of us ever any again. Fight back. Walk Tall. Join the resistance.

We are courageous, powerful resisters. We, the poor people and black people are uniting under one banner and saying No! to cops who brutalize and those who allow cops to brutalize. Ain’t no power like the power of the people cuz the power of the people don’t stop!

The question remains: “What’s the problem here”?

Streetvibes Vendor Sonny Williams and his daughter Sara

Streetvibes exists as a forum for the expression of the views and opinions of our readers and supporters. The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the Streetvibes staff or the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless.

S T R E E T V I B E S March, 2004

Editorial

Page 18

FRAC - Food Research and Action Center News FRAC RESPONSE TO PRESIDENT BUSH’S FY 2005 BUDGET PROPOSAL, AND RELATED BUDGET STORIES (FRAC News Alert, February 5, 2004) The President’s Budget Proposal fails to provide new investments to increase access to the federal Child Nutrition Programs. This omission is particularly glaring given the US Department of Agriculture’s stated goals in the Budget of reducing hunger, combating obesity, and improving nutritional status. A spate of recent studies have shown that the best way to accomplish those goals is to reach more children and families with the benefits of the federal nutrition programs. http://www.frac.org/ html/news/2005budget.htm BUSH ADMINISTRATION DEFENDS LONG-TERM BUDGET CUTS IN PLAN TO CUT THE DEFICIT IN FIVE YEARS (Washington Post, February 6, 2004) A computergenerated Office of Management and Budget (OMB) estimate highlights the continued spending clampdown and budget cuts to domestic programs in the “out years” that would have to be achieved in order to meet the Bush Administration’s goal of cutting the deficit in half by 2009. Such sustained spending cuts to domestic programs (e.g., lowincome education, child care, job training) would represent an unprecedented shift in federal priorities and would be the first sustained rollback in federal spending since the 1930s. The document’s tables are normally part of the Budget but this year, according to Richard Kogan of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, OMB “took extra pains to hide them.” The administration cautioned that no budget decisions have been made beyond 2005 and also took issue with the interpretation of the long-term budget that shows declines in spending on domestic programs for low-income people: “This administration has done a lot for low-income people,” said OMB spokesperson J.T. Young, citing increases in food stamp participation and the recent Medicare prescription drug plan. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ wp-dyn/articles/A173152004Feb5.html The Center on Budget and Policy

Priorities says that the President’s budget would make the nation’s fiscal problems worse; and that the deficit-reducing proposals are disproportionately tilted against lower- and middle-income families, while affluent and powerful constituents are essentially given a free ride. http://www.cbpp.org/22-04bud.htm he Children’s Defense Fund says the Bush Administration’s budget proposal presents a reckless plan to expand tax cuts for the rich at the expense of the most vulnerable Americans including 12.1 million children who live below the poverty line. http:// www.childrensdefense.org/ release040202.php

the end of June. Only 1,000 jobs were created by the economy in December and 2.8 million manufacturing jobs have been lost in the past 41 months. Congress voted in 2002 to give unemployed workers an additional 13 weeks of benefits and extended the program twice. But it expired just before Christmas. Congressional Republicans said another extension wasn’t necessary because job growth was near at hand. http:// www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ articles/A617152004Jan29.html?nav=hptoc_b Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analysis: http:// www.cbpp.org/1-29-04ui.htm

REPORT FINDS HIGHCALORIE, LESS NUTRITIOUS FOODS ARE MORE AFFORDABLE FOR LOW-INCOME PEOPLE (Los Angeles Times, February 1, 2004) Low-income people tend to choose more high-calorie, low-nutritious foods because they provide more energy for the dollar, researchers have concluded. “Energy-dense foods composed of refined grains, added sugars or fats may represent the lowest-cost option,” said Adam Drewnowski, director of the Center for Public Health Nutrition at the University of Washington.

For low-income people, choosing these kinds of products “may represent a deliberate attempt to save money,” he said. The report also found that women from food insecure households were less likely to get enough fruits and vegetables and, on average, weighed about 10 pounds more than women from food secure households. “People know what food costs. Parents know they are buying enough to make their kids and themselves not hungry, but they know they are not getting a totally balanced diet,” said Jim Weill, FRAC’s president. http:// www.latimes.com/news/ nationworld/politics/wire/sns-apfood-for-the-poor,1,3891154.story (free registration required)

IN-DEPTH EXAMINATION OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF RURAL AND SMALL-TOWN POVERTY (Amber Waves, U.S. Department of Agriculture, February 2004) This article discusses how rural counties with high poverty rates differ across racial and demographic lines.

Comparisons are made among and between high-poverty counties populated by African Americans, Hispanics, Whites, and Native Americans. Of the 444 non-metro counties classified as high-poverty counties in 2000 (based on 1999 income), three-fourths reflect the low income of racial and ethnic minorities and are classified as Black, Native American, or Hispanic high-poverty counties.

Some high-poverty areas have low labor force participation rates and could benefit from job training and job development. Others have a high share of female-headed families with children, and programs that provide child care and secure child support would help defray child care costs and open up employment opportunities. http://www.ers.usda.gov/ Amberwaves/February04/Features/ Anatomy.htm

RECORD-HIGH 375,000 JOBLESS WORKERS LOSE UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS IN JANUARY; 2 MILLION WILL LOSE THEM BY JUNE (Washington Post, January 30, 2004) An analysis of Labor Department statistics by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows that 375,000 jobless workers, the highest number for January in the three decades the statistics have been tracked, will have exhausted their unemployment benefits in January.

About 2 million additional jobless workers will exhaust benefits by

S T R E E T V I B E S March, 2004

REPORT: NEARLY 1.2 MILLION OHIOANS EXPERIENCE FOOD INSECURITY (Plain Dealer, Cleveland, OH, January 31, 2004) A report by the Children’s Hunger Alliance entitled “Hunger in Ohio: The State of the State 2004,” shows that nearly three-quarters of a million Ohio residents experience food insecurity during an average month. “These families live on the verge of hunger and are often unsure how they will be able to afford their next meal,” said William Dolan, CEO of the Alliance. Some 129,000 additional children and 180,000 adults experience the worse condition of hunger. The Alliance recommends that Ohio change its food stamp

FRAC News

requirements and allow recipients to show eligibility once a year instead of every six months. Last year, more than $100 million in federal food stamp funds were left unused by potentially eligible people in the state. The Ohio Department of Education is also working to expand School Breakfast Program participation through initiatives like “breakfast in the classroom.” http://www.cleveland.com/news/ plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/ 1075545104213372.xml. For the full Children’s Hunger Alliance report: http:// www.childrenshungeralliance.org/ Hunger%20Report%20files/ Ohio2004.pdf EDITORIAL: OHIO CHILDREN MUST RECEIVE FREE AND REDUCED-PRICE MEAL BENEFITS THEY ARE ELIGIBLE (News Journal, Mansfield, OH, February 4, 2004) This editorial urges the Ohio community to do more to find a way to get free and reduced-price meals to school children who are eligible for them. Calling the situation where low-income students miss meals while at school “needless hunger,” the editorial points out that students who are hungry have trouble focusing on their classes. Free and reducedprice school meals must be available to eligible students in a discreet manner to alleviate stigma, outreach must be performed to alert parents to the resources available, and summer meals must be made available at sites that encourage participation and provide food as well as activities. http:// www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/ news/stories/20040204/opinion/ 347678.html ACTIVISTS URGE WASHINGTON STATE LEGISLATORS TO PASS ANTI-HUNGER BILL (Associated Press, January 30, 2004) Anti-hunger activists urged Washington State legislators to support proposed legislation that would simplify the Food Stamp Program and require schools to offer free and reduced-price breakfast and lunch programs.

House Bill 2769 would make free and reduced-price school meal programs mandatory, expand summer food programs, extend food stamp benefits for five months to people leaving the TANF program, and simplify the food stamp process so that recipients would only have to report changes in income that make them ineligible. http://www.kgw.com/ sharedcontent/APStories/stories/ D80CRGEO0.html

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TREATMENT: Both N.A. Hopeline 820-2947 A.A. Hotline 351-0422 C.C.A.T. 381-6672 Talbert House 684-7956 Transitions, Inc 859-491-4435 VA Domiciliary 859-559-5011 DIC Live-In Program 721-0643

TREATMENT: Men Charlie’s 3/4 House 784-1853 Prospect House 921-1613 Starting Over 961-2256

TREATMENT: Women First Step Home 961-4663 Full Circle Program 721-0643

HOUSING: CMHA 721-4580 Excel Development 632-7149 Miami Purchase 241-0504 OTR Housing Net. 369-0004 ReSTOC 381-1171 Tender Mercies 721-8666 Tom Geiger House 961-4555

SHELTER: Both Anthony House (Youth) 357-4602 Caracole (AIDS) 761-1480 Friars Club 381-5432 Drop Inn Center 721-0643 Haven House 863-8866 Interfaith Hospitality 471-1100 Lighthouse Youth Center (Teens) 861-1111 St. John’s Housing 651-6446

Mt. Airy Center 661-4620 Volunteers of Amer. 381-1954

Need Help or Want to Help?

If you need help or would like to help please call one of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless members listed below.

SHELTERS: Women and Children YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter 872-9259 (Toll Free) 1-888-872-9259 Bethany House 557-2873 Salvation Army 762-5660 Welcome Hse. 859-431-8717 Women’s Crisis Center 859-491-3335 SHELTER: Men City Gospel Mission 241-5525 Garden St. House 241-0490 Joseph House (Veterans) 241-2965 St. Francis/St.Joseph House 381-4941

Formed in 1984, The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is a membership organization. Our member groups serve the homeless through emergency shelter, transitional living facilities, permanent housing, medical services, social services, soup kitchens, and mental health/addiction services.

The Coalition also consists of individual citizens who want to take an active role in ensuring that Cincinnati is an inclusive community, meeting the needs of all of its citizens. Join the fight to end homelessness; contact the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless at (513) 421-7803, 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45202

OTHER SERVICES: AIDS Volunteers of Cincinnati 421-2437 Appalachian Identity Center 621-5991 Beech Acres 231-6630 Center for Independent Living Options 241-2600 Churches Active in Northside 591-2246 Cincinnati Health Network 961-0600 Community Action Agency 569-1840

Contact Center 381-4242 Emanuel Center 241-2563 Freestore/ Foodbank 241-1064 Fransiscan Haircuts 651-6468 Goodwill Industries 771-4800 Coalition for the Homeless 421-7803 Hamilton Co. Mental Health Board 946-8600 Mental Health Access Point 558-8888 Hamilton Co. TB Control 632-7186 Health Rsrc. Center 357-4602 Homeless Mobile Health Van 352-2902 House of Refuge Mission 221-5491 Legal Aid Society 241-9400 Madisonville Ed. & Assis.

Center 271-5501 Mary Magdalen House 721-4811 McMicken Dental Clinic 352-6363 Our Daily Bread 621-6364 Peaslee Neighborhood Center 621-5514 Project Connect Homeless Kids 357-5720 St. Vincent De Paul 562-8841 The Emergency Food Center 471-4357 Travelers Aid 721-7660 United Way 721-7900 VA Homeless 859-572-6226 Women Helping Women 872-9259 MIDDLETOWN/HAMILTON (Butler County) St. Raphaels (Food Bank/Soup Kitchen) 863-3184 Salvation Army 863-1445 Serenity House Day Center 422-8555 Open Door Pantry 868-3276 New Life Baptist Mission (Soup Kitchen) 896-9800 Hope House (Homeless Families/Singles) 423-4673

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