Streetvibes October 2008 Edition

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Photos from the damage done by Hurricane Ike’s winds ~ p.8

Interview with Barb Wolf about her stay in jail ~ p.3

STREETVIBES

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O c t o b e r 2 0 0 8 • I s s u e 1 4 7 • C i n c i n n a t i ’s A l t e r n a t i v e N e w s S o u r c e

Lots of Choices for the White House Clear differences, diverse candidates in presidential race

By Gregory Flannery Editor It’s still possible to elect a woman president this year, even though Sen. Hillary Clinton didn’t get the Democratic Party’s nomination. Nor do you have to vote Republican if you want a woman to be vice president.

Cynthia McKinney & Rosa Clemente of the Green Party of the United States are among the 14 presidential tickets on the Ohio ballot for the 2008 election.

McKinney’s platform features publicly funded universal health insurance, immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops and contractors from Iraq and a detailed plan for helping homeless people.

The ballot also includes candidates for the Constitution Party, the Libertarian Party of Ohio, the Socialist Party USA, as well as write-in candidates and independents – some well known, such as consumer advocate Ralph Nader and rightwing pundit Alan L. Keyes; and some largely unheard of.

None of those candidates Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain make their way down the ramp to ground zero during the 9/11 Commemora- will win the election, of course. tion Ceremony. Photo by REUTERS/Julie Jacobson/Pool.

None is expected to have even

Ain’t Gonna Take It

Social services sue over attack by city council

By Gregory Flannery Editor Social-service agencies threatened by a city-council resolution calling for their dispersal are fighting back, filing suit Sept. 10 in U.S. District Court against the city of Cincinnati.

The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of a resolution establishing a policy that “social-services agencies and programs shall not concentrate in a single area and shall not locate in an area that is deemed impacted, which at this time includes Over-the-

Rhine.” The resolution, sponsored by Councilman Chris Bortz, says the “unchecked proliferation” of these agencies has the potential to negatively impact Over-the Rhine.

The policy is constitutionally flawed in multiple respects, according to a suit filed by attorney Timothy Burke: * The complaint alleges violation of the First Amendment – the affected agencies include Streetvibes and the Voice of the Homeless Speakers Bureau, operated by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless.

“An ordinance aimed to

eliminate the spread of social-service programming in certain neighborhoods is an unlawful, content-based restriction on speech that was made without a compelling government interest,” the complaint says. * The lawsuit says the new policy is vague on essential

See LAWSUIT p.12 Sister Mary Stanton, executive director of Bethany House, shares comments during a press conference on Sept. 10.

Photo by Andrew Anderson.

the marginal impact that Nader had in the 2000 race or that business magnet H. Ross Perot had in 1992.

But for an electorate used to complaining that their choices for the presidency are too narrow, the 2008 ballot is full of options.

Big diff The next president will almost cerFor information tainly be on other elections Sen. John and ballot McCain of initiatives see Arizona, pages 6 and 7. the Republican nominee; or Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, the Democratic candidate. Either choice will be historic. McCain, 72, would be the oldest person ever elected president. Obama, 46, would be the first African-American president in U.S. history.

The two candidates represent starkly different backgrounds. McCain, the son of a Navy admiral, was a naval aviator shot down while bombing North Vietnam. He

See PRESIDENT p.7

2 News Briefs Judge Tosses AntiFeeding Law Orlando, Fla. – A federal judge has ordered the city of Orlando to stop enforcing an ordinance banning distribution of food to poor people in parks. Supported by the American Civil Liberties Union, Orlando Food Not Bombs challenged the law in court while refusing to stop serving free meals to the needy. Undercover cops arrested some activists, even confiscating their soup ladle. The city of Cincinnati has a similar restriction on food distribution to homeless people in Washington Park in Over-the-Rhine.

Churches and other nonprofit groups get around the local ordinance by serving food on sidewalks around the park (see “Charity begins in the Park,” issue of July 1, 2008).

New Tent City Rises in Seattle Seattle, Wash. – Nickelsville is the name of a new camp for homeless people erected on vacant industrial land owned by the city. The name is a dig at Mayor Greg Nickels, whose administration has cleared other homeless camps. Volunteers working overnight erected 150 fuchsia-colored tents. The city posted signs threatening to remove the tents within three days but activists said they hoped to expand the camp with housing for up to 1,000 people.

Deadly Attacks on Homeless Bring Prison Terms Fort Lauderdale, Fla. – A man turned state’s evidence against two friends who’d joined him in beating homeless men, agreeing to testify in their trial on charges of second-degree murder. William Ammons, 21, testified he drove the two others to the site of the attacks, struck one sleeping man with a plastic sword and fired a paintball gun at a man beaten to death on a park bench.

Norris Gaynor died of a skull fracture. Ammons received a 15-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to third-degree murder and aggravated battery. His friends, Thomas Daugherty and Brian Hooks, face 40 years to life in prison when they’re sentenced in October.

The Vibe

Streetwise

By Gregory Flannery

Jail Walls Can’t Stifle a Determined Activist Take note, Gov. Sarah Palin: This is the stuff of which community organizers are made. When documentary filmmaker Barbara Wolf was jailed for peacefully protesting the war in Iraq, she spent her time organizing prisoners (see “Eight Minutes,” page 3.) Her success was apparent during a demonstration in solidarity with Wolf outside the Hamilton County Justice Center. Prisoners posted peace signs from their cell windows, knocked loudly and waved to the protesters on the streets outside.

Wolf urged fellow prisoners to register to vote. She also gathered statements from prisoners about the war. Here is a sample of what they had to say: “They put us in jail so we will take time to think. George Bush needs to stop and think. He sent troops over for nothing, based on a lie. He needs to end this war. He seems to make decisions based on instant gratification. Perhaps he should spend some time in jail so can think.” (Tara Ashbrook and Amie Campbell) “I don't understand why we are over there fighting. The people in Iraq have not done anything to us. We have enough problems in the U.S.A. to focus on. Bush, keep the focus on your own country.” (Diane Mayes) “The troops have been at war way too long. It's time to bring them home.” (A soldier's sister who asked to remain anonymous) “I wouldn't want to raise a family in this world today. How are we supposed to teach children morals and values when our country is fighting and killing in a war that is unnecessary? How do we explain that to children?” (Amanda Butts) “What kind of a human would want to send their people to fight a war and be killed and leave their family and loved ones behind to suffer? And this is supposed to be a country of peace and freedom. We're fighting an endless war. We need to bring people together and reunite to correct the problems in the USA such as homelessness, racism, violence (domestic, gang, etc.), energy sources, cost of living going up while wages are stagnated or dropping.” (Michelle Miller) Keisha Jones was preparing to write a statement when she was called to leave for Talbert House. As she was rushing for the door, Wolf asked, "Keisha, what did you want to say about the war?" Realizing she had no time left, she said, "STOP!"

Trash Talk in That Other Newspaper Compare the thought that went into those statements with the crap that The Cincinnati Enquirer printed in a Sept. 9 story about drug busts in East Price Hill: “The Cincinnati Police Department is working hard to get trash off the street corners, especially when it’s the kind that sells drugs.” Put aside serious questions about the merit of spending tens of billions of dollars on punitive drug laws that crowd our prisons, preoccupy police departments and penalize people, mostly poor people, for what is essentially a health issue. Calling people “trash” is callous and dehumanizing. The language was too much even for the usually strident , reactionary Cincinnati Blog, which took the paper to task for a jarring failure of objectivity.

Some Give Up, Others Keep Fighting Remember all the work that volunteers put into a proposed referendum that would require most employers in Ohio to provide paid sick days for workers? Forget about it. Ohioans for Healthy Families pulled the referendum from the Nov. 4 ballot, saying it will wait for Sen. Barack Obama to be elected president instead.

“Speaking for the Coalition, SEIU District 1199 President Becky Williams said the decision was ‘not easy nor made lightly’ and was reached only after ‘it became clear that a shrill and vitriolic ballot campaign marred by misinformation and disinformation would be impossible to avoid,’ a statement by the coalition said. “When Sen. Barack Obama conveyed his support for a federal paid sick day bill in his speech accepting the Democratic presidential nomination, and Gov. Strickland and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) pledged their help in enacting such a law, Williams said the coalition decided to pull the OHFA from the November ballot.”

That’s investing an awful lot of hope that Obama will win and that, if elected, he’ll keep his pledge and that, if he keeps his pledge, Congress will approve paid sick days. Do supporters really expect that national business leaders and Republicans won’t mount an even uglier, more expensive fight?

Fortunately other community organizers, such as the Cincinnati Interfaith Workers Center, are more persistent in their own efforts to protect workers’ rights and improve their economic lot. The center has launched a new Web site at http://cworkers.org. It’s a bi-lingual resource for information on workers’ and immigrants’ rights and local programs and campaigns for worker justice. The web site, also hosts "JustNews," a calendar and weekly digest of local peace and justice events.

Award Winning Journalists Write for Streetvibes Several Streetvibes contributing writers recently won awards in the annual competition sponsored by the Cincinnati Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Lew Moores won for enterprise reporting on the demise of The Cincinnati Post. Margo Pierce won for a news feature about domestic violence and for a news story about the 2007 elections. Larry Gross won for arts and entertainment writing for a story about the Ohio Express. Gregory Flannery won for trend reporting for a story about smoking. Granted, the prizes were all for stories that were published last year in CityBeat, but we’re still proud to have such award-winning writers in our paper.

STREETVIBES October 2008 Streetvibes is a newspaper that provides relevant discussions of homelessness, poverty and other related social justice issues. It is published monthly by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless.

Address: 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 Phone: 513.421.7803 x 12 Fax: 513.421.7813 Email: streetvibes2@ yahoo.com Website: www. cincihomeless.org Blog: streetvibes. wordpress.com Streetvibes Staff Editor Gregory Flannery Contributing Writers Margo Pierce, Angela Pancella, Michael Henson, Stephanie Dunlap, Larry Gross, Steve Sunderland, Bill Haigh, Georgine Getty, Alyssa Konermann, Lew Moores, Julia Przybysz, Thomas A. Dutton, Patricia Garry Photography/Artwork Andrew Anderson, Andrew Freeze, Anthony Williams, Jimmy Heath, Peggy Joseph, Georgine Getty, Lynne Ausman Advisory Committee Joe Wessels, Steve Novotni, Andrew Freeze, Georgine Getty, Michael Henson, Stephanie Dunlap, Steve Gibbs The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Programs include Streetvibes, “Voice of the Homeless” Speaker’s Bureau, Cincinnati Urban Experience (CUE), Homeless Curriculum, and Homeless Civil Rights Organizing Project. All donations support these programs and are taxdeductible to the full extent of the law.

We are members of:

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Community News

Photo by Andrew Anderson

STREETVIBES October 2008

Eight Minutes

with

Prisoner #1314546

By Margo Pierce Contributing Writer

T

wo years ago, when filmmaker Barbara Wolf sat in U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot’s office and refused to leave unless he signed the Declaration of Peace, she knew she’d be arrested.

After a valiant attempt to put the war in Iraq on trial, making the point that when lives are at risk or are being lost, civil disobedience is justified, she and three fellow protesters were finally sentenced Aug. 29. Sentenced to 20 hours of community service, Wolf refused to have her lifetime of volunteerism degraded to a “punishment.”

Last month she went to jail for 10 days instead.

“It was fascinating,” Wolf says. “If I had been there only two or three days, I would not have learned what I had begun to learn.”

What did she learn?

“It is not a place that will send out people better than

when they came in,” she says.

“One would hope that if you were in there for something, you might learn something and come out and say, ‘OK, I’m going to change my life for the better.’ Instead, they absolutely break you down, and you come out emotionally and physically exhausted, so you cannot be better than when you went in. The logical thing is you fall back into whatever pattern you had before, because you don’t have the energy, and certainly no one has helped you find anything more.”

The physical and mental exhaustion are deliberate, Wolf says, pointing to the conditions in the jail. The temperature is very cold; lights are left on 24 hours a day, making sleep difficult; the noise is deafening; and rules aren’t provided, but even if they were, each commanding officer (CO) on duty emphasizes different rules as more important than others, making it virtually impossible to stay out of trouble.

“When you’re checked, in you get a blanket, two sheets, a small towel, two pairs of underwear and a little bag with a portion of a toothbrush, little tiny thing of toothpaste and a tiny bar of soap,” Wolf says.

“If you’re just in overnight, you get nothing. You don’t get a blanket.

“You get to go into a cell, and if you’re lucky, on the bed in the cell there is a pad.

If you’re not lucky, you don’t get a pad and you get to lay on metal and it’s very cold. …

People are constantly shivering. You are not allowed to use your blanket during the day to keep yourself warm, like as a shawl. Your bed must be made all the time during the day or you might be locked down.”

The infractions that can lead to a lockdown aren’t readily apparent. Wolf was fortunate enough to meet and befriend a number of women who had been arrested before, and they were kind enough to fill her in.

“They way you find out what

you’re supposed to be doing is there’s a loudspeaker system, and the CO sits in a booth out in the big hall and speaks into the loudspeaker,” she says.

“This is what it sounds ‘PQSUWALARSHAWHA!’ ” Sounding like a very loud, very bad imitation of Donald Duck on a rampage, Wolf says the noise level is something else that’s difficult to contend with.

“The cells are cement, the cell block is all cement -- the echo is just fierce,” she says.

“What happens is people will be talking. For a new group to be talking, in order to be heard, they have to talk a little bit louder, and that ups the ante.

“The ante gets upped and upped and upped and then, when it’s nice and loud, they’ll turn on the television, which will go louder than everybody who’s talking. And unless you’re right there at the time it’s turned on and you say, ‘Turn it down!’ it’ll be left very, very loud and there’s no

Demonstraters show support for Barb Wolf while she is locked up in the Hamilton County Justice Center. Wolf says that many people are in jail for short periods of time and that a night court would be an effective alternative to unnecessary lockups.

way you can turn it down. So everyone has to talk louder yet.”

She coped with the noise by meditating -- focusing on her breathing -- and she says it helped mute the sound.

Wolf says claims of jail overcrowding are bogus.

“People were in for ridiculous things and for very short periods of time, so they have this turn-around issue,” she says. “People are in because they didn’t pay a ticket on time or they’re in because they were not supposed to be driving but they were driving because they had to get to work, and they get stopped for a light out on their car … and they’re back in for three days.

Three days -- why? Why only three days if it was that bad of a thing that they did? And why three days if it’s not that big of a deal?”

Wolf says that these shortterm jail stints disrupt a person’s life just enough to make it impossible to get and hold a job. She said her 10 days made it clear that there’s a simple, cost-effective solution to the high-cost of jailing people and the unnecessary short-term sentences -- night court. Processing cases immediately would sort out the people who need to be locked up from those who need some other kind of intervention.

Saying she would “definitely do it again,” Wolf says she’s not done agitating for change.

“I think we’re all in it together,” she says. “I think people all need to help each other … the necessity of taking care of the common on behalf of all of us.”

Wolf says there’s a library at the Justice Center, but she never did figure out how to get there. The only way for prisoners to receive books is to have them directly mailed by a bookstore, publisher or www.amazon.com. If you know someone who is in, or just want to perform a random act of kindness, send a book to someone on this list: http:// www.hcso.org/PublicServices/InmateInfo/InmateInfoFAQ.htm.

Many people work hard to make a difference for the less privileged in Greater Cincinnati. “Eight Minutes” is an effort to learn who they are and what motivates them.

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STREETVIBES October 2008

Community News

Peaches, Condoms and Understanding No longer homeless, Valarie Dowell returns to help

By Stephanie Dunlap Contributing Writer Valarie Dowell and I have not sat long on the Washington Park bench before it becomes clear that the petite woman stumbling forward, back and then again forward, is toddling toward us.

I watch her and watch Dowell, whose face is just as calm and serene as it’s been since we first met 20 minutes ago at the Drop Inn Center across the street.

Dowell had wanted to stop at the homeless shelter so she could drop off a plastic bag of peaches picked from her neighbor’s over-laden tree.

“Fresh peaches!” Dowell cried, prompting a couple faces to swivel momentarily away from a large-screen TV broadcasting coverage of Hurricane Ike. This same hurricane had two days ago flung branches and premature fall leaves on the path over which a woman now stumbled in our direction.

I can’t tell if Dowell recognizes her until she is upon us.

“C’mon,” Dowell says, reaching out a hand.

The woman grasps it and Dowell pulls her down onto the bench beside us. She falls against Dowell’s shoulder and starts to cry. Dowell hugs her close.

This woman – I will call her Bethany – alternately tells me, “Write this down,” and asks, “Why are you writing this down?” She smells of alcohol but there is something more than substance abuse at play.

“I’m sorry,” she says to Dowell. “I’m sorry.”

“I got beat up when I was 6 months old,” she says to me, her voice raking across hysteria. “My father didn’t give a fuck about me.”

“This goes back to what we were talking about,” Dowell says sotto voce. “It goes deeper than what we see. People see just the drugs and alcohol.”

“I’m sorry,” Bethany wails.

“She was in housing,” Dowell says, almost to herself. “I don’t know what happened.”

‘I don’t push’ Before Bethany’s arrival, Dowell and I had been talking about her work with the homeless, which brings her often to Washington Park.

It’s the same park where Dowell sometimes slept when she herself was homeless.

“I come from being a part of this lifestyle,” she says.

“It’s an honor to be able to give back.”

Before she received treatment nine years ago at the Hamilton County River City Correctional Center, Dowell, 51, spent more than 15 years dogged by homelessness, drugs, alcohol and domestic violence.

After her release Dowell worked for two years at the Drop Inn Center. She then moved to the Healthcare for the Homeless program, where she has spent the past five years as a program advocate aboard a medical van as part of the Cincinnati Health Net-

Valerie Dowell offers support to a client. Once homeless herself, Valerie now works with the Cincinnati Medical Van and Healthcare for the Homeless. Photo by Andrew Anderson.

work’s mobile medical team.

Every person who accesses the van’s health-care providers must also see her. She helps patients register for Medicaid and refers them to agencies – often the FreeStore FoodBank, which she calls a “safe haven” – to help with housing, mental-health services, food

“It goes deeper than what we see. People see just the drugs and alcohol.” stamps, eye care and other supportive services. She says the van makes weekly rounds between the Drop Inn Center, Our Daily Bread, Lighthouse Youth Services, Anna Louise Inn and Mt. Airy Shelter.

The most common ailments she sees in the homeless are high blood pressure, diabetes and mental illness.

Tending to the health of the homeless must be a priority, Dowell says.

“It’s almost as if people

think ‘housing first,’ but if their healthcare isn’t good, they’re not going to stay in housing,” she says.

When they are ready to take just one small step, Dowell wants to be there.

“I’m just a message of hope,” she says. “I don’t push anything on anybody.”

She says one misconception about the homeless is that they’re lazy.

“A lot of people think, ‘Forget it, they don’t want to do nothing,’ ” Dowell says.

What people fail to understand is that many homeless people contend with mental illnesses that send them destructive messages. It takes personal relationships to counteract those messages, she says.

Bob McGonagle shares Dowell’s intimate understanding of homelessness, addiction and recovery, having served time for 10 DUIs. McGonagle, now a volunteer advocate for Healthcare for the Homeless and sexton for a local church, says

Dowell taught him everything he knows about serving the homeless.

Her two most important teachings, he says, are “to listen to the consumer and to follow through.”

Dowell’s weekday schedule looks roughly like this: a day aboard the mobile medical van, an early evening in the classroom as she works toward her degree in social work and later evenings spent passing out condoms and information about HIV testing in Washington Park for the Central Community Health Board of Hamilton County.

In all this, she finds time to raise a 15-year-old daughter, who often accompanies her into Washington Park, and to volunteer at River City Correctional, the place that provided the fulcrum of recovery on which Dowell’s life turned.

See VALERIE p.5

Only purchase Streetvibes from BADGED vendors.

Vendors wear their WHITE badges while they sell the paper.

STREETVIBES October 2008

5

Local News

Only A Strong Wind Away From Hunger As Ike blows and power goes, Freestore FoodBank feels impact of outage

By Alyssa Konermann Intern Winds reaching 75 miles per hour blasted Cincinnati Sept. 14. With the gusts went trees, roofs and the electricity in hundreds of thousands of homes. What was left in their place? Fires, three deaths, damage to homes and businesses – and many people left without food.

Many Cincinnati residents were surprised by the strength of the storm, which demonstrated the far-reaching effects of Hurricane Ike. While the Midwest typically watches the destruction wrought by hurricanes from the comfort of the couch and with the distance of the television, this storm made tangible for Cincinnatians the struggles of natural-disaster recovery.

More than 825,000 Duke Energy customers were reportedly affected by power outages at some point throughout the day, with more than 581,000 still without power the following morning. This brought much more serious consequences than battles over bottled water and flashlights at stores and a temporary lack of hot water to shower or electricity for the TV: with no electricity, it’s hard to keep food fresh.

The FreeStore FoodBank,

without power itself, responded to the storm with disasterrelief food distribution. Between Tuesday and Thursday following the storm, the FreeStore distributed food to more than 1,900 people representing more than 4,100 family members -- triple its average daily number.

The situation was complicated by the logistics of distributing food to so many people without the computers typically used. The food room where clients usually shop for food is in the basement and was unsafe without lighting.

Improvisation went to work.

The outdoor donation drop-off area was cleared of supplies and filled with distribution tables where staff members packed bags, directed traffic and hand-copied information to later be entered into the agency’s records. Greg Deloach and Ralph Cunningham braved the dark basement armed with flashlights and hand forklifts to carry all the food upstairs for distribution.

Brian MacConnell, vice president of client services at the FreeStore, was thoroughly impressed with the way staff and clients worked together to make the operation possible.

“It was amazing,” he says.

“It was so cool the way it all worked out and how everyone pitched in. It was really neat

Valerie, continued from p.4 ‘Because of her’ Dowell calls to a man in ragged clothes to come help mind Bethany so we can finish the interview.

“Listen to her,” George Thomas tells Bethany. “She’ll help you, OK? She’s a good lady.”

It’s clear Bethany isn’t going anywhere, but Thomas stays a minute to answer my questions about Dowell.

“She’s a very nice lady and she’s very kind, but I refuse the help,” Thomas says goodnaturedly. “She’ll try to help everybody. But she fuss at you sometimes.”

Thomas lives on the riverbank. He is one of a number of homeless people who refuse to stay in shelters. He says he prefers to sleep under a bridge because the trucks and cars passing overhead lull him to sleep. He doesn’t like the noise or the crowd inside

shelters.

Dowell once felt much the same way, so she can relate.

Thomas has seizures.

“I should have been dead a long time ago,” he says. “But because of her, I’m alive.”

He says he’ll come soon to see Dowell because he needs to get off the streets before it gets cold.

“Yeah, he won’t,” she says quietly when Thomas walks off.

She’s known him seven years, and she’s heard it before.

Dowell turns back to our interview.

“I think the best story is when the people tell it,” she says.

A man using a branch for a cane limps up.

“I hurt my leg, man,” he says.

“I see that,” Dowell says, unflappable as always.

usual, and much food at home was lost. Compounded, these factors make recovery difficult for families without a lot of financial cushion.

The comment of a first-time client stuck in MacConnell’s mind, he says: “If it were not for the storm and the state of the economy, he would not be in the FreeStore FoodBank.”

More and more, it just takes one thing to tip someone over the edge, whether it’s a car accident, a health crisis or a citywide loss of power. The FreeStore continues to see more and more working people who are unable to make it on what they used to. The agency has seen an 85% increase in foodroom traffic in the past three years.

MacConnell remains hopeful.

“The community has always been very, very generous to the FreeStore FoodBank,” he says.

Kroger sent several trucks to the FreeStore warehouse, and Duke Energy donated $50,000, a “very generous (gift) that is one of those ways that people step up, ” MacConnell says.

“It will work out,” he says.

“It’s just one of those things that happens that we will find our way through.”

The FreeStore FoodBank saw an increase in the number of people needing food after the wind knocked out power to most residents in Cincinnati. Photo by Lynne Ausman.

to be a part of. It was amazing and really satisfying to see how gracefully everyone has dealt with this.”

MacConnell recalls an event Thursday morning after the blackout started. There were still no lights. It was the third day of the emergency operation.

“It would have been so easy to burn out; it was not fun and exciting anymore,” he says.

In a rare moment of relative calm, he was pointing a gen-

tleman where to go, and four different people raised their hands with a smile and said, “Sir, I can help you here.”

The end of the blackout doesn’t signal the end of the storm’s impact.

“This is going to reverberate for awhile because clients can’t just fill a refrigerator and get back on their feet,” MacConnell says.

Many were forced to miss work because of the storm, kids weren’t fed at school as

WIN/Win Solutions Working in Neighborhoods saw the crisis coming

By Patricia Garry Contributing Writer Working in Neighborhoods (WIN) celebrates its 30th anniversary this month. Under the leadership of its founder, Sister Barbara Busch, WIN has grown into a community development corporation (CDC) that combines education, community development and partnerships with financial institutions.

WIN’s work includes helping individuals buy and hold onto their homes, stabilizing neighborhood and creating community-wide solutions.

WIN has focused on the foreclosure crisis by working with the city of Cincinnati and Hamilton County to create a pool of rescue funds for city residents in foreclosure.

The group has also played a leadership role in the Hamilton County Homeownership

Preservation Group, a coalition of service providers, community leaders and lenders.

The agency has compiled a yearly report of foreclosure activity in the area since 2002.

That 2002 report showed the first tendrils of increasing numbers of foreclosures, the influx of mortgages by global banks and brokers and the spread of the problem into all neighborhoods. The 2007 report outlines the devastation being created by this continuing crisis.

Another WIN innovation has been to develop working relationships with lenders and servicers, enabling it to negotiate agreements that prevent foreclosures. These companies include Citigroup, Chase Manhattan, Litton Loan Servicing, Ocwen Servicing, Select Portfolio Servicing and a number of local lenders.

Since 1978 WIN has helped more than 8,500 low-income and moderate-income families purchase their first homes.

In 2007, WIN’s services benefited a total of 3,285 people.

Included in this number are 101 families whose homes were saved from foreclosure.

Other projects are homebuyer training; providing tutoring, training and enrichment for youth; showing low-income homeowners and senior citizens how to save on energy bills; rehabbing homes for first-time homebuyers in South Cumminsville, Northside and College Hill; and training residents to shape their communities.

For all this work and for the innovative solutions WIN creates, Busch received the Most Outstanding Executive Director of 2008 Award from the CDC Association of Greater Cincinnati.

Election Special 6 Deal – or No Deal?

STREETVIBES October 2008

Economy replaces backroom plot as top issue

By Lew Moores Contributing Writer

The backlash-buzz generated by the deal between Democratic and Republican leaders not to endorse opposing candidates in this year’s races for Hamilton County commissioner has since receded.

That’s primarily because both endorsed candidates face independent opposition – unlike some other unopposed countywide races – and both are taking them seriously.

The deal struck late last year by both party leaders involves Republicans not endorsing anyone to oppose Democratic Commissioner Todd Portune in his re-election campaign, and Democrats not endorsing anyone to oppose Greg Hartmann, current Hamilton County clerk of courts, who is running for county commissioner to replace Republican Pat DeWine, who is running to become a Hamilton County common pleas judge.

“At first there was more reaction, but now a little,” says Chris Dole, an independent opposing Hartmann. “Everyone’s memory drops off. Time heals all wounds. At first a lot of people were really upset.

Maybe they still are.”

‘Short memories’ Dole, an electrician by trade, is a Democrat and has been a Crosby Township trustee on the west side of the county for three years. He jumped into the race against Hartmann early this year, after the Republicans chose Hartmann to run for commissioner.

Portune is also running against a candidate unendorsed by a party, Ed Rothenberg, a realtor and Republican who is running as an indepen-

dent.

Portune says he hasn’t heard much on the campaign trail about the deal and is quick to assert the decision wasn’t his.

“First of all, I didn’t make it, so I have no control over it,” he says. “And I have always had an opponent in this race.

Parties don’t prevent anyone from running.”

Rothenberg isn’t new to county politics. He was one of those who organized a petition drive – represented by a broad coalition of disparate political groups -- in the summer of 2007 to challenge a sales tax increase approved by county commissioners to build a new jail. Voters in a referendum soundly defeated the sales tax increase – from 6.5 to 7 percent – last November.

It was what he perceived as political arrogance once again that led Rothenberg to run as an independent candidate for commissioner after the deal struck by both parties.

But, like Dole, Rothenberg also notes the diminished anger over the deal. And without party endorsement, there comes the accompanying difficulty in fundraising and recruiting campaign volunteers.

“There was some anger, but people have short memories,” he says. “It’s seldom talked about unless I bring it up in a debate or bring it up when I’m interviewed. Even though I’m a Republican, it’s made it very hard for me to raise funds and a lot of other support I would normally get if I were endorsed. It makes it very difficult for me to face somebody as popular as Todd Portune. But he’s a tax-andspend politician.”

‘Jobs, jobs, jobs’ An overarching theme is the economy. All four candidates

are running, to one degree or another, on the economy and what it has meant in the county, budget cuts the county has had to make and loss of revenue from, among other things, declining sales-tax revenues.

“The top three issues are jobs, jobs, jobs,” Hartmann says. “We’ve seen population loss and have to get more aggressive on working on economic development. We start with our existing businesses and working to make this a business-friendly place to do business. Current priorities relate to economic development and jobs creation, streamlining government. If you’re aggressive in the area of development, it means more jobs and more sales-tax revenues.”

Portune is campaigning on a similar platform of making investments that make businesses and jobs grow, thus increasing revenues.

“We cannot cut ourselves into prosperity,” he says.

That would include investing in programs such as those dealing with mental illness and drug and alcohol rehabilitation, reduce criminal recidivism and the jail population and working with high school drop-outs on completing their education.

“Reforming individuals and changing behaviors,” Portune says.

The candidates talk about jobs training, jobs creation and affordable housing as a way to combat homelessness in the county. Portune also includes foreclosure-prevention counseling, which he says has been going on for the past two years and has resulted in homeowners saving more than 700 homes.

“We have enough homeless people,” Portune says. “We don’t need to create a new category of homeless people.”

Todd Portune, photo provided.

Rothenberg has been campaigning on a theme of reassurance – taxes will not be raised, and ways and means will be sought to reduce them.

Property taxes will be capped from rising more than 3 percent a year, he says.

“The economy, of course -that’s the main issue,” Rothenberg says.

Another proposal is a 300to 500-bed jail that could be built and financed with a 30year bond.

“So you can have the jail without raising taxes,” Rothenberg says.

And with the county commissioners cutting the budget, both Portune and David Pepper, the other Democratic commissioner, are “talking more like fiscal conservatives than Democrats,” Rothenberg says.

The candidates also talk improvements to mass transit and reorganizing SORTA into more of a regional transit system. Dole says it lacks a better east-west movement.

He also the county needs to

Ed Rothenberg, photo provided

get more involved in creating “green” jobs, with production of solar cells and wind turbines and where mass transit would tie in to reduce the carbon footprint.

“But the number-one issue is the budget and how we’re going to pay for everything and keep programs going,” Dole says.

Like Rothenberg, he says the Portune-Hartmann deal motivated him to enter the race.

“It’s the main reason I ran,” he says. “How is a politician to be held accountable to people if they keep cutting deals like this? Politicians must be held accountable to people and must be working for people.”

For more information on the candidates, visit their campaign Web sites: www. toddportune.com; www. greghartmann.com; www. edrothenberg.com; www. chrisdole.com.

STREETVIBES October 2008

Election Special

Lots to Decide

7

Many issues and races make crowded ballot

By Gregory Flannery Editor Every four years the presidential election dominates political discussion and coverage. But the ballot also includes many local races and issues that arguably have a more direct impact on voters’ daily lives.

Here are the major offices and issues that will be on the ballot in Hamilton County: City of Cincinnati issues * Issue 7 is a referendum on the use of red-light cameras approved by Cincinnati City Council. The cameras photograph cars that allegedly violate traffic signals, sending citations to the vehicles’ owners. A yes vote would overturn council’s decision. * Issue 8 is a proposal to change the way city council is elected. Under the current system, voters choose nine candidates from an open field. The top nine vote-getters win seats on council.

Under proportional representation, each voter ranks candidates in descending order from one through nine on each ballot. Votes that are not needed or cannot be used to elect a candidate are distributed to the next highest candidate choice on each ballot who remains eligible to be elected.

Supporters say the measure is a fairer, more representative and more democratic electoral

system. Opponents say proportional representation would help the election of fringe candidates rather than those with broad citywide appeal.

State of Ohio issues Voters will decide on several proposed amendments to the Ohio Constitution: Issue 1, proposed by the Ohio General Assembly, would establish earlier filing deadlines for statewide ballot issues.

Issue 2 would authorize the state to issue bonds up to $200 million to continue the Clean Ohio program for environmental conservation and preservation of natural areas, open spaces and farmlands and other lands devoted to agriculture.

Issue 3 would amend the state constitution to protect private-property rights in groundwater, lakes and other watercourses.

Issue 4 was an attempt to repeal a law passed by state legislators capping interest rates on payday loans at 28 percent annually. Previously, lenders charged $15 per $100 for a two-week loan, which works out to a 391 percent annual percentage rate. Backers withdrew the proposal in early September Issue 5 is a proposal to keep the payday-lending reform in force.

Issue 6 is a proposed amendment to the state constitution,

allowing a casino to be built near Wilmington, with a tax to be shared by all 88 counties.

State offices Ohio attorney general: Richard Cordray, Democrat; Mike Crites, Republican; Robert M. Owens, independent.

Ohio Supreme Court: Maureen O’Connor, Joseph D. Russo Ohio Supreme Court: Peter M. Sikora and Evelyn L. Stratton State senate, 8th district: Daniel J. McCarthy, Democrat; and William J. Seitz, Republican State representative, 28th district: Connie Pillich, Democrat; and Virgil G. Lovitt II, Republican State representative, 29th district: Louis W. Blessing, Republican; and Adam Noe, Democrat State representative, 30th district: Bob Klug, Democrat; and Bob Mecklenborg, Republican State representative, 31st district: Steve Johnson, Republican; and Denise Driehaus, Democrat State representative, 32nd district: Dale Mallory, Democrat; and Theo Barnes, Republican State representative, 33rd district: Thomas G. Brown, Republican; and Tyrone K. Yates, Democrat State representative, 34th district: Jeff Sinnard, Demo-

crat; and Peter Stautberg, Republican State representative, 35th district: Ron Maag, Republican; Marcia Garrison, Democrat; and Jonathan Morris, independent write-in candidate Hamilton County offices County Prosecutor Joe Deters and Sheriff Simon Leis Jr., both Republicans, are running unopposed. So are County Engineer William W. Brayshaw, a Republican; and County Coroner Dr. O’dell M. Owens, a Democrat. Eleven judicial races have only a single candidate each.

The contested races are: County commissioner: Todd Portune, Democrat; and Ed Rothenberg, Republican County commissioner: Greg Hartmann, Republican; and Chris Dole, Democrat Clerk of courts: Martha Good, Democrat; and Patricia M. Clancy, Republican County recorder: Rebecca Prem Groppe, Republican; and Wayne Coates, Democrat County treasurer: Steve Brinker, Democrat; and Robert A. Goering, Republican Common pleas court: Pat DeWine, Republican; and Norma J.H. Davis, Democrat Common pleas court: Jerry Metz, Democrat; and Fred Nelson, Republican Common pleas court: Russell J. Mock, Republican; and Jody Luebbers, Democrat

Federal offices * President of the United States: Chuck Baldwin & Darrell L. Castle, Constitution Party Bob Barr & Wayne Allyn Root, Libertarian Party of Ohio Richard Duncan & Ricky Johnson, independent John McCain & Sarah Palin, Republican Cynthia McKinney & Rosa A. Clemente, Green Party of the United States Brian Moore & Stewart Alexander, Socialist Party USA Ralph Nader & Matt Gonzalez, independent Barack Obama & Joe Biden, Democratic Donald K. Allen & Christopher D. Borcik, write-in Jonathan Allen & Jeff Stath, write-in James R. Germalic & Martin Wishnatsky, write-in Alan L. Keyes & Brian Rohrbough, write-in Platt Robertson & Scott Falls, write-in Joe Schriner & Dale Way, write-in * U.S. Congress, 1st district: Steve Chabot, Republican; Steve Driehaus, Democrat; Rich Stevenson, write-in; and Eric Wilson, write-in * U.S. Congress, 2nd district: David H. Krikorian, independent; Jean Schmidt, Republican; Victoria Wulsin, Democrat; and James J. Condit, Jr., write-in

President, continued from p.1 was a prisoner of war for more than five years. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982, then to the Senate in 1986, he has been in Congress for 26 years.

Obama, a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was president of the Harvard Law Review, worked as a community organizer in innercity Chicago and practiced as civil-rights attorney before running for office. After seven years in the Illinois Senate, he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004.

McCain likes to call himself an anti-corruption maverick, but he was investigated for ethics violations as one of the “Keating Five” in the savingsand-loan scandal of the 1980s.

Critics say Obama is strong on oratory but lacks national experience.

Their political platforms also differ greatly: * McCain supported the

2003 U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, saying even more invaders should have been sent. Obama opposed the

McCain likes to call himself an anti-corruption maverick, but he was investigated for ethics violations as one of the “Keating Five” in the savingsand-loan scandal of the 1980s. war from the start. * Obama wants tax cuts for the middle and working classes. McCain wants to cut taxes for corporations and wealthy individuals. * Obama’s energy plan emphasizes development of alternative forms of energy.

McCain wants to drill for oil in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge.

* Obama supports women's right to choose abortion. McCain wants to repeal Roe vs.

Wade. * McCain opposes granting the right of habeas corpus – the right to appear before a judge – to prisoners held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay. Obama supports habeas corpus.

There are similarities, as well. Both major-party candidates support the use of capital punishment. Both support civil unions, but oppose marriage, for same-sex couples. Both call for health-care reform that would leave the great bulk of the system operating for profit, rather than establishing the kind of national health-care systems operating in Canada and Western Europe.

What about the poor?

The amount of attention the presidential candidates gives to issues of poverty and

homelessness decreases as the political spectrum goes from left to right, with the Green Party emphasizing aggressive federal efforts to alleviate poverty, the Democratic Party offering incremental improvements and the Republicans making scant mention of the issue.

McKinney’s economic policies are distinguished by her focus on low-income people.

Among her proposals are rent-

Critics say Obama is strong on oratory but lacks national experience. control laws; the use of vacant housing, including closed military bases, to shelter homeless people; and abolition of all laws that criminalize any aspect of homelessness, including laws against sleeping in public places. She calls for

increased funding for affordable housing and for mentalhealth and drug-rehabilitation programs.

Obama’s proposals call for raising the federal minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by 2011, guaranteeing workers seven paid sick days per year and expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, which benefits low-income workers.

The “Issues” page on McCain’s Web sites delineates 20 topics and his positions, including “Space Program” and “Sanctity of Life.” But poverty is not among the 20 issues. In the senate, he has sometimes voted to raise the minimum wage and sometimes opposed it.

An audience reported at 29.5 million people watched the live Sept. 26 broadcast of the first debate between McCain and Obama, possibly signaling heightened interest in the campaign and presaging increased turnout at the polls

8

Photographs/Artwork

Jesse Jacskon visits SEIU offices on Vine Street. Photo by Georgine Getty

STREETVIBES October 2008

City Home, a mixed income housing unit located on Pleasant Street suffers from the wind damage of Hurrican Ike. Photo by Andrew Freeze.

St. Paul’s Church on Race Street just north of Washington Park. Picture on the left shows was St. Paul’s church once looked like. Photo on the right shows the damage done by winds from Hurrican Ike. Photos by Jimmy Heath and Andrew Freeze.

Parts of the roof lay on the ground near Findlay Market.

Photo by Andrew Freeze.

STREETVIBES October 2008

Poems/Artwork

“Every Fourth Fall”

By William Haigh

Ripped, raucous, racist ridicule I could rant ridiculously rude To squelch the frailty of personal feuds Thread between the mind and the heart These historic brick walls do much more than part The seas of dishonest social realization When self-determination has nothing better to do Than asphyxiate itself to the chosen few Broiled, battered, bigotry baffled I could banner bullets balistically Numbing our law enforcement statistically One, ten, twenty dead Our obsession does much more than tuck us safely in bed Oh, how weak we’ve become without trust in our heads Without knowledge of cultural adopted norms No leader equipped to quiet this storm Preached, prophesizing, polished puppets An appointee to represent prolonged poignant pain Everyone elects to explore what’s to gain Caucusing the friends who wallow likeminded Cancerous is the populous’ spirit misguided Continually assuming the supposed system Forever milking the lesser base Charity nothing but a marketed face Ideals, morals, ’ans, ’ics, and ’isms we love Nothing more than a naïve notion of doves Rising from the ash, peace, equality, They have no pre-destined or innate task Can’t believe it, go ahead and vote Better yet coup From the masses will rise one, perhaps a few She or he, or they’ll always be above you ‘Better’ than you ‘Richer’ than you More ‘efficient’ than you I hate to break it to ya’ … it’s just what we do Not what I believe nor for what I work or hope Historically though, fact is fact So either clash, cope Or hop aboard with the complacency pact Otherwise you’ll just be more blood on the tracks

Drawing

by Anthony Williams

Cleo’s Joke Corner Do you know what the hairiest part of a dog is?

The outside.

Knock, knock.

Who’s there?

Pencil.

Pencil who?

Your pants’ll fall down if you don’t button them up.

9

10

Hitting Bottom Sometimes denial is the only pillow left

Two days ago I saw a man passed out on the sidewalk in broad daylight. This is a fairly common thing to see in the neighborhood where I saw the man and a fairly common thing to see in any major city.

He had a ragged beard and mismatched clothes, and his legs were bare to the knee.

His feet were in the street, and he was stretched out onto the sidewalk as if his feet were on the floor at home and he was stretched out in his own comfortable bed. One hand shaded his eyes from the sun.

Then yesterday, a block away from where I saw the first man, I saw another. The first was black. This one was white. He had lain himself on his side with a stone for a pillow. It was clear that he, too, had passed out where he was, for he lay on the open sidewalk — not on a bench or in a doorway.

Surely, each of them has reached bottom.

Half-starved, poisoned by cheap alcohol and crack cocaine, sick, malodorous from sweat and weak bladders and bowels, it doesn’t seem likely

STREETVIBES October 2008

Column

Michael Henson is author of Ransack, A Small Room with Trouble on My Mind, The Tao of Longing and Crow Call. This column is part of a monthly series on poverty and addiction.

called that dog an excuse with a tail.

Eventually, the dog died, and so did Philip. He was three months sober and going to meetings, but so poisoned with alcohol and his liver gone so cirrhotic that his skin had turned a shade of walnut and his arms and legs were clouded with purple bruises and the disease took him under.

Why is it that some people find their bottom on the first Two homeless individuals sleep on benches in Washington little bump — a DUI or a Park. Poverty complicates the process of hitting bottom simply because the low-income addict is so close to the bottom to warning from a spouse? Why is it that others will drink and begin with. Photo by Jimmy Heath. drug themselves into disease people like these can fall any bottom. and death? lower. It doesn’t seem likely I remember Philip from I’m sure there are many reathey can take any more. the East End. When I first sons, and you can find them Yet it’s not likely that we’ll knew him, he was living in an listed in any basic text on see them in the circle at any abandoned building with no substance abuse and chemical of the meetings around the plumbing. For electricity, he dependency. Go to the chapter corner or just down the street. ran a power cord to the house on denial and it will tell you Help is just a few stumbling next door. To flush his toilet, all about it. Denial is a feature steps away but I doubt they he had to wait until it rained. A of any chronic disease — canwill stumble over there just cer, diabetes, heart yet. disease. They all If you ask them, they’ll come bundled probably tell you this is the with denial. DeBy Michael Henson worst they have had it. But if nial is the initial you suggest they get help, they response to any will complain that the rules are bad news, and it too strict, or I tried it and they sweet guy, he would help any- has many shifty strategies for kicked me out, or they told me body but himself. He would maintaining itself. But with I had to have a state ID. Some bring me kids who were get- chemical dependency, denial excuse will rise up and present ting in trouble, and he would is compounded by the action itself as an obstacle. put up friends gone homeless of the drug on the brain itself The bottom is only the bot- in his rickety building. and becomes an intrinsic featom if the addict feels it as the But when I asked him about ture of the addicted person’s getting help thinking. The mind of each for himself, individual addict will develop he always various strategies to convince told me he itself that what is happening is c o u l d n ’ t . manageable and that, if there We would are problems, they are extergo around nal. and around It’s your fault or the world’s, but it al- but it’s not mine. ways came The lucky — or blessed — to one ones hit bottom. They come thing: Who to a point so low that all these would take defenses quit working. Reality care of smacks them in the face. Conhis dog? I cerned family or friends can

ammered H

help raise the bottom by setting limits. The courts can intervene. In some cases, a few nights sleeping on the sidewalk — and waking up cold in the morning with the sidewalk grit in your face and hair — can be enough to convince an addict he or she needs help.

Even then, pride, in its weird way, can keep them out.

These men on the sidewalk can conjure lots of reasons to keep on using.

Hitting bottom is a shifty, slippery, unpredictable thing at best. People of all classes struggle with it, not just the poor. But I believe that here again is another place where poverty complicates things.

Poverty skews the bottom.

If you are raised to believe everyone goes to jail at one time or another, as it seems in many poor communities, then jail becomes a rite of passage rather than a consequence. If you have learned to do without, you’d better handle situations like hunger or homelessness. If society mocks your poverty and tells you that you count for nothing from the day of your birth, then you might expect nothing. And when nothing comes, it is only a matter of course, not of your use. None of this is necessarily true for anyone raised in poverty, but I have seen this process at work, time and again.

Denial is still denial, rich or poor. There are plenty of former high rollers sleeping on sidewalks, too. But poverty complicates the process of hitting bottom simply because the low-income addict is so close to the bottom to begin with.

These men passed out on the sidewalk might have a long way yet to travel.

Issues 2008 What’s at Stake A series of open dialoguges on critical issues October 25 9:00am First Unitarian Church 536 Linton St.

Issue: Foreign Policy

STREETVIBES October 2008

Column

Letter to a Living Nation

11

What I hear Barack Obama saying

By Steve Sunderland Contributing Writer Dear Friends: I am sending this letter to people who want to really get to know me. I know that some people will see the letter as "political." Yet I wanted to put aside the politics and just share from the heart. I would be happy to read such a letter from John McCain. I know that his years of service in the Senate and his brutal years in prison in Vietnam have given him insights that would inspire me and many other people.

And I would have been eager to read a letter from Hillary Clinton on her deepest feelings about taking the brave and so important step toward a presidency. She, too, has a great story for our nation and for the world.

I have entitled my letter, "Letter to a Living Nation," because I feel that America is alive, growing and becoming even more beautiful. When I reflect on who I am as an American, I can clearly see that America is different from the America I grew up in and the America I studied in school and the America my daughters will grow up in.

America is not finished; instead, America has another very important phase to enter.

I believe we are living in a time when "liberty and justice for all" are very possible for the first time. I can feel people understanding with me that a "change" is about to happen, and it may already be happening in villages and cities throughout this nation.

I am the son of this new America. My parents are one path to thinking differently about possibilities. My grandparents are the links to an America that honors those family members that step in and make hope possible. My name, although I am not Muslim, indicates a respect for all religions. The new America rests on a foundation of so much injustice, misery and lost opportunity that can now be healed, respected and remembered. The new America can dedicate itself to making sure that every child and adult is respected without consideration of skin color, religion and national origin. I am that child, and I am that adult, and I am that change.

When I look at myself, I see every slave and ex-slave

Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Senator Barack Obama speaks about The National Urban League’s “Opportunity Compact” during their annual conference in St Louis.

Photo by REUTERS/Peter Newcomb.

nodding to me about this time being "our time." Look with me into the faces of old black people and see their hope. I am deeply moved by their hope for our America, having lived lives, in too many cases, outside the circle of appreciation.

I am clearly seeing and supporting their belief in hope.

When I look at myself, I see every white person who was abandoned, shunned, mistreated or tortured for believing in justice for all, and I see them smiling and nodding to me as well. Look into the faces of whites, young and old, who want a job, an education, a pension, a chance at health care, and see that they, too, are hoping that America will make that one major step toward justice. Their issue is not color but opportunity to be secure in the American Dream. I stand with every one of them in their faith.

Do you see that America is more than injustice, hatred and fear? Do you see that America is that person in a wheelchair, pushing up a hill, asking only for a path that is clear? Do you see that elder who would like one hot meal a day, one trip to the pharmacy without fear and one more chance to live in a country of fairness? Look into

the hearts and minds of our brown brothers and sisters.

Can you see and hear their joy at loving their families, at being Americans who can work for a real wage?

When I look, when I listen, when I touch a hand, when I wipe away a tear, I can feel stronger for this community of people wounded and scarred by the injustices of our nation. I am stronger because the American people say to

America is not finished; instead, America has another very important phase to enter. I believe we are living in a time when “liberty and justice for all” are very possible for the first time. me, "Give us a new chance to hope that America can be just." That is all I need to hear to make me take one more trip or give one more speech or to want to meet one more group.

I so deeply want to have America believe in itself as a beacon of hope. I know that part of what I am feeling is the stored up experiences of so

many people who have been pushed off their path by hatred. I see and feel rejection in my conversations with old people, black and white, when I hear how they lost their farms to heartless policies that have their ties to the earth ignored.

Watching adults cry about how a person died because the money was just not there for health care reminds me of the many millions, throughout our history, who had no chance to see a doctor or go to a hospital because of their skin color or because money was gone.

Now there are more people in this dire place. I wonder where my mother and father would have lived in America if they had stayed together and needed ongoing health care.

Would their needs have been accepted even though one was black and one was white?

Now, we know that America can change this simple access to health care. Will we?

The history of hatred has forced adults out of jobs that were mainstays in their families. Working people have been hurting for so long, and working people have not had a government that has stood with them and said, "We respect you and your commitment to work. We will not sell your jobs to the cheapest worker in other countries. We will honor your work, your pensions, your job safety, your right to a fair wage; and we will be proud again of the American worker." I want to lead that new government.

Brutal policies have shortened the education of children, denied adolescents access to colleges, and made a life of debt a commonplace for American youth. Why? I watch and feel the hopelessness of families, losing their homes, failing to get credit, having to say to their children, "College is out." I have a personal experience that education can and is the major ladder of success.

If children are robbed of education at any stage, they have been pushed away from climbing into a life of hope. In my own life, I have seen phony rules about race dropped and black and poor people rise to levels of greatness.

Now a cloud of uncertainty hangs over every student and every family, an increasing shadow of chances that may be lost. Our country cannot afford bad education for any

child or adult. The loss of any opportunity to improve education adds to the pessimism of young people and their parents. I know that I have to recommit my energies to returning American education to greatness through fair policies of funding and higher standards. I stand with the children of hope.

I am now before you as a friend of those who want a new America. I want to be seen as representing the deeper friendship that America has always had. We are a country where black and white came together to fight and overcome slavery, and we are still fighting the legacy of racism. I am a soldier in that struggle. We are a county where all people came together to respond to the attack of fascism. Together we won a war on two world fronts.

I am able to be a candidate because we have ensured with our blood that justice and freedom will not perish. We are a country that has shaken off one cruel Depression, and we will rebound from this new one as well. I am an advocate for a new economy of justice for our country and for our globe.

And I am a friend to those who want to strengthen the spiritual resources of our communities. What is at the heart of my friendship is an unshakable faith in the goodness of every American. Now I can feel that goodness stirring throughout the country. I want to be a part of the spiritual team of justice for all.

A long time ago Harriet Tubman, Abraham Lincoln and Harriet Beecher Stowe combined to help America turn the page of history to freedom. I want us to continue their work and to free the world from all forms of hatred, slavery and poverty. I know that this is a goal that can be achieved during my term as presidency if we, as Americans, put faith in working together.

I am the friend who says, "Now is the time." I am the leader who will work with you. I can feel America awakening to justice. Thank you.

This "letter" reflects Steve Sunderland’s view of peace and is not a part of the campaign of Barack Obama.

Please send comments to sundersc@email.uc.edu

12

STREETVIBES October 2008

The Jump

Lawsuit, continued from p.1

Pat Clifford, executive director at the Drop Inn Center, explains why the emergency shelter joined the lawsuit at a press conference on Sept. 10. Photo by Andrew Anderson.

points, failing to define “an area that is deemed impacted,” “concentration,” “social-service agency” or the “programming it seeks to regulate.”

“As written, the directive requires both the city manager and the targeted charitable organizations to guess at its meaning,” the complaint says. * The lawsuit says the city’s resolution also violates the due-process clause and equalprotection clause of the Constitution. Instead of fact-based research, it relies on unsubstantiated assertions, the complaint says.

The resolution says, “When the city and the region concentrate social services within a small geographic area, it does a disservice to the community by isolating disadvantaged people, both physically and socially, from mainstream society and the majority of available employment opportunities.”

But where does that come from?

“The city has no study or any other documentation to justify this conclusion,” the lawsuit says.

Council struck first Council passed the resolution 8-1, with Councilman Cecil Thomas casting the lone dissenting vote.

A statement issued by the eight other council members criticized the social-service agencies for filing suit instead of working with committees already studying the issue.

“As a result of this resolution, four working committees were established by the planning department to work on different issues … and provide recommendations on how best to implement this

“What defines a geographical area? Is that one neighborhood or a group of neighborhoods?

It makes no sense whatsoever to move this forward without the city doing its due diligence.”

-Councilmember Thomas

policy,” council’s statement says. … “We should be careful not to allow a pre-emptive strike based on incomplete or incorrect information to undermine the diligent efforts of over 40 community leaders, social-service providers and others.”

But the premise of that statement is false, according to Georgine Getty, executive director of the Homeless Coalition. The committees weren’t formed as a result of the resolution, she says. The committees were formed May 18; council passed Bortz’s resolution June 25. If there were a “pre-emptive strike,” it was by city council.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include Bethany House Services, Inc., Joseph House, Mary

Magdalene House, the Drop Inn Center, the Cincinnati Interfaith Workers’ Center, the Homeless Coalition and seven individuals who live in Overthe-Rhine, Clifton Heights and the West End – neighborhoods that might be affected by the resolution.

In a Sept. 10 press conference outside the federal courthouse downtown, Thomas said his fellow council members hadn’t done their homework.

“The law department for the city of Cincinnati was not given the time to do research on this resolution so we would know what it means,” he says.

“How many (social-service agencies) is too many? We don’t know. What defines a geographical area? Is that one neighborhood or a group of neighborhoods? It makes no sense whatsoever to move this forward without the city doing its due diligence.”

The underlying assumption of the resolution – that lowincome people would benefit by moving agencies that help them – is flawed, according to Michael Howard, executive director of Michael Howard.

“It leaves our population and the people we provide services to at risk of being locked out of services,” he says. “In America, you feed people where you find them.

You help them where you find them.”

‘Repeal it’ Bortz says the lawsuit is an over-reaction, because his res-

“I hope that Bethany House Services would be applauded and not prevented from responding in this manner to our city’s homeless families.”

- Sister Mary Stanton olution has no legal import.

“As I am not a constitutional lawyer, I find it difficult to comment on the merits of the case,” he says. “That said, a common-sense answer

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is that resolutions are merely statements and have no legal binding effect. By definition, resolutions are ‘non-binding’.

Council implements policy through ordinances. Since no ordinances have been proposed, let alone passed, I find it hard to understand how anyone’s First Amendment’s rights or due-process rights under the Constitution of the United States have been even remotely impacted.”

If the resolution is so unimportant, the solution is clear,

not prevented from respond-

“If we’re overreacting and it’s a non-binding resolution, fine – repeal it.”

- Georgine Getty

ing in this manner to our city’s homeless families,” Stanton says. “Surely this kind of impact would be welcomed.”

Bortz’s resolution has the perverse effect of defeating

Councilmember Cecil Thomas was the only member of Cincinnati City Council that voted against the June resolution.

Photo by Andrew Anderson.

Getty says.

“If we’re over-reacting and it’s a non-binding resolution, fine – repeal it,” she says.

Several speakers at the press conference, including Sister Mary Stanton, executive director of Bethany House Services, said the city should be encouraging – not trying to restrict the ‘impaction” of – the kinds of services the plaintiffs provide.

“Should we need to provide additional shelter for homeless families on Fairmount Avenue, where we already have a rich, resourceful and successful array of programs and services, I hope that Bethany House Services would be applauded and

its own purpose, Getty says.

If council’s goal is to have social-service agencies move into other neighborhoods, demonizing them hardly facilitates the process.

“By our own city using hostile language against us, it makes it harder for us to move into other communities,” Getty says.

Thomas, too, questioned the larger message conveyed by the resolution.

“When you have a city that creates a perception of insensitivity and policies of insensitivity, the only place that leads is down,” he says.

Interested in volunteering with Streetvibes?

Contact Greg Flannery at 513421-7803 x 12 or e-mail him at streetvibes2@yahoo.com

STREETVIBES October 2008

13

News

In a Safe Haven

Parsing the meaning of a child’s hug

By Angela Pancella Contributing Writer Lois Simpson ¬— “Miss Lois” as she’s known to the children — retired in September as coordinator of the Kids Café at Our Daily Bread. Here are some excerpts from an interview she gave before her retirement.

“I remember years ago saying to myself, ‘I’ll never work with young people.’ But you should never say, ‘Never.’

You do not know what’s in store for you. We can only see a portion of the way.

“For a short time I worked with a gentleman by the name of Dr. Obadiah Williams, who spearheads the Early Childhood Development and Motivational Program. At that time it was housed in his church, but it has gone well beyond that now. And in sitting under his leadership, I learned so much. These were children that really had to apply to be in his program, starting from like 6 months on until kindergarten.

“Watching him, something just started moving inside of me. When you begin to really see children, all of their skills, their cognitive skills, etc. — when you see them developing, it’s an awesome thing.

And these children also were taught by Dr. Williams how to read, and they became smooth readers, rather than word readers. So (after) having that time with him, coming here with Our Daily Bread Kids Café, I was able to use some of the things that I learned there. “(Working at Kids Café) has been a blessing, and it’s been challenging for me. One thing that (Executive Director) Sr. Mary Beth said to me, ‘You have to tell the children (you’re leaving) because so many people move in and out of their lives. They’re there one day, and then the next day they’re gone.’ That had impact on me. It moved me to begin to think, ‘What is it I desire to leave with these children?’

“A lot of the children, you know, they hear what they can’t do and they hear what

they aren’t and what they will never achieve. That’s an untruth. I want something tangible for them, something as simple as a clear keychain, where I can capture a couple of words of wisdom that they can remember down through the years. After a while, if they look at it every day, it will become a part of them.

Then they can take ownership of it.

“What’s in my head right now is, ‘Never say that you can’t do something.’ The question isn’t, ‘Can you do this?’ The question is, ‘How long will it take you to do this?’ That’s a challenge for them, and that’s something for them to be able to attain. And that’s valuable. That’s good wisdom.

“So that’s one thing. And something else that’s been going around in my mind to leave with them is, ‘Always strive to do better tomorrow than you did yesterday.’ And when you do that, when you have that mindset, if there’s something that comes that

The Homeless Con

Trying to understanding a man who lied

By Larry Gross Contributing Writer I think the moral of the story I’m about to tell you is that, when purchasing a copy of Streetvibes, make sure you’re dealing with the real thing – a real vendor. For a short period of time, I wasn’t. I got suckered by a con man.

Most days I still see the guy who did this downtown. Most days I still give him change and a few cigarettes.

We’re still friendly with each other. I still care about what happens to him – but my trust in him, for the most part, is gone. He’s a man who lies.

In the beginning, sometimes when we would meet and I thought he was a Streetvibes vendor, he’d tell me he was hungry and needed a couple dollars to go to Arby’s and get a sandwich. I’d always give the money to him. Now, because of the lies, I find myself not wanting to open my wallet.

Our encounters started a couple months ago. Often I would see him on Sixth Street, close to Main Street, sitting on the sidewalk selling Streetvibes and The Catholic Telegraph. Thinking back, I’ve never seen a homeless person

Streetvibes vendor Terrence Williams always makes sure he is wearing his badge when he sells the paper. Make sure you always buy a paper from a vendor wearing the white Streetvibes badge. Photo by Andrew Freeze.

selling both of these papers, but at the time, I didn’t give it much thought.

It also was a little strange that he seldom had current editions of Streevibes to sell.

He once told me he couldn’t sell the current issue until he sold the old issues he had left.

I don’t think I really believed this, but I purchased some of those old papers anyway, despite the fact I’d already read them.

That changed in September.

Once again I saw him sitting on the sidewalk at Sixth

Street. This was after Labor Day. He was still selling old issues of Streetvibes along with The Catholic Telegraph. I’m more or less assuming now that The Catholic Telegraph was old newspapers, too.

I asked him if he had the September issue of Streetvibes.

“No,” he said. “They had some printing problems and the paper hasn’t come out yet.”

I could feel the hair rise on the back of my neck, but I let it go at that. We made some more small talk and he asked

Lois Simpson retired in September. She is pictured here surrounded by children from the Kid’s Cafe, a program of Our Daily Bread. Photo by Peggy Joseph.

you never expected, that you didn’t expect, that you didn’t see, then you can approach it differently.

“What am I going to miss most? The hugs. Yeah. Because you get it daily. Maybe

not from every child but from a lot of the children and then different children, different days. I will miss that. Because what those hugs say to me (is that) they know that they are in a safe haven.”

for a cigarette. After I lit it for him, I continued on my way.

I didn’t tell the homeless man I write for Streevibes. I didn’t tell him that the paper’s editor, Gregory Flannery, had given me an advance copy of the September paper in late August. I didn’t tell him I knew he was lying.

So that’s my story on the Streetvibes con, but questions and thoughts still rattle around in my head.

After discovering this was a con, I talked to real Streetvibes vendors and found out they always start selling the current issue right when it comes out -- the first day of each month.

Only when a current issue sells out do they start offering back issues.

Also, every Streetvibes I’ve ever purchased has run a block type of ad that states, “Only purchase Streetvibes from BADGED vendors. Vendors wear their WHITE badges while they sell the paper.”

This is good information to have. I should have been paying more attention to it. I want that buck I’m turning over to go to a real Streetvibes vendor who’s trying to make his or her life better.

While I’ll never purchase another paper from him, I don’t plan on telling this man that I busted him on his con.

What’s the point? I figure he’s got bigger problems than trying to sell old newspapers.

I don’t know what it would

be like to be him -- to be homeless -- but I can try to put myself in his shoes.

It must be awful for him not to know where his next meal is coming from. He must feel panicked when he doesn’t know if he’ll have a bed to sleep in when the sun goes down.

It must scare him to death to think he might have to roam the streets at night. It must occur to him, at least some of the time, that he could be murdered while living on the streets. Many times he must feel desperate.

This has to be a terrible life. Where do you find pride?

Where do you find hope?

Maybe you have to lie to others -- and even to yourself -to find some pride and hope, even if it isn’t real. I just don’t know.

Maybe he’s simply trying to make a buck anyway he can.

I don’t know why he’s not a real Streetvibes vendor. I don’t know why he can’t find a regular job. I don’t know why his life is so far off track.

As I’ve said in other essays I’ve written for this publication, it’s none of my business as to why a person is homeless. It’s my choice to give.

Regardless of all those unknown factors and as much as I don’t like being lied to, I simply need to get over it.

He’s homeless. He’s homeless. Because of this fact alone, I should cut him some slack.

14

Guest Columnist

STREETVIBES October 2008

When Personal Responsibility Becomes Abusive Blaming — and punishing — the poor

By Thomas A. Dutton Guest Columnist Exactly when did the American mind become comfortable with the notion that punishment solves deep social problems? I suppose we should have seen this coming that, as U.S. society becomes not just a society with prisons but a veritable prison society, a kind of incarcerative logic would ooze into the social consciousness brandishing punishment — wielded as a stick to force behavioral change and exact personal responsibility — as social policy.

Case in point is the Aug. 5 article in The Cincinnati Enquirer as well as the paper’s Aug. 8 editorial (Aug. 8) urging removal of the Drop Inn Center from the Washington Park area as the “ultimate” solution: “Ultimately, with a new School for Creative and Performing Arts being built and other major changes nearby, the solution must include moving the center, coupled with more comprehensive services to homeless citizens, as City Councilmember Roxanne Qualls has been advocating.

Anything less is a short-term, feel-good solution.” Calling for the Drop Inn Center’s removal comes as no surprise, as The Enquirer has been playing this broken record forever.

The Drop Inn Center is well aware of the pressure bearing down upon it as changes occur in the neighborhood.

Even though most of this pressure is likely motivated by stereotypes and ignorance about what the center really does, the center is implementing policy and even costly changes to its physical plant in response. One such policy is referred to by The Enquirer as the “three-strikes-and-you’re out rule for residents who get into trouble.” As part of the “deal,” Cincinnati Police will compile a monthly list of arrests of people within 500 feet of the center (virtually all of Washington Park), which will then be reviewed by the center to see who should receive a warning. If shelter residents don’t change their behavior, they can be kicked out. “The Drop Inn Center must hold its clients to higher standards of behavior,” says the editorial.

The language here is straight-up punitive.

And worse, the assumptions lurking behind that language stem from the same malevolent sources that in other contexts take form as racism or sexism or xenophobia or chauvinism — or you name it. The Enquirer’s problem is that it judges the homeless as de facto bad neighbors in Over-theRhine, not because of their behavior, but because of their status.

That The Enquirer insists on substituting status over character is pernicious on its own terms, but the issue worsens when we look at the facts. In his Aug. 4 report to

the City Council Committee on Health, Environment and Education, Pat Clifford, executive director of the Drop Inn Center, said, “Out of the 163 citations in the month of July (given to people in Washington Park), only 15 percent or 24 were from people who stayed at the Drop Inn Center during that period.” Even in light of these facts, The Enquirer chooses ignorance as its strength.

The center’s goal is not to kick people out — doing that would be just internalizing the oppressive discourse — but to actually reach out to people more directly to get them the help and resources they need in light of a stagnating economy closing off job and housing opportunities. We should be praising the Drop Inn Center in its efforts to approach the discarded with dignity rather than with the penalizing and castigatory logic that pervades The Enquirer and the social contract these days.

We should not be fooled by what’s really at work here.

Underlying both the threestrikes deal and the call for the center’s removal from the neighborhood is a discourse with a long history that has come to frame our conventional understanding about what urban poverty is and how it should be addressed. That understanding? That poverty is simply a behavioral problem, and if homeless individuals and the poverty-stricken

more generally were to make the right choices to exercise personal responsibility, all would be solved. Poverty, concentrated and otherwise, is merely an individual, private matter in this view. Its solution rests with people changing their behavior by simply making better choices in their lives.

The discourse accentuating behavioral change and personal responsibility underlying the Drop Inn Center’s future is a travesty, really. Is personal responsibility all we have as a societal answer to the structural realities of homelessness and poverty? How is it that 35 years of political-economic and governmental shifts that have produced jobless ghettos, underemployment elsewhere, cuts and rollbacks in the social safety net and wealth inequality escape notice as causes of all this mess?

Is it even within the bounds of thinkable thought today for citizens to believe they can make claims on the state?

We are in trouble, and those troubles will get worse. The neo-liberal end-game of inequality plays out all too starkly in Over-the-Rhine: gentrification and calls to spank or remove the homeless, upscale commercial development and not enough neighborhood-serving businesses for poorer residents, and two dog runs planned for Washington Park but no place for kids to swim and dive in a

deep-water pool.

As the impoverishment deepens and polarization widens, we already can see what’s in store for urban policy. Indian theorist Arjun Appadurai calls it “econocide,” by which he means “the worldwide tendency to arrange the disappearance of the losers in the great drama of globalization.”

Econocide is what passes for urban policy these days.

Whether by incarceration, active ignoring, criminalization or outright removal, arranging disappearances is the game plan for the Drop Inn Center and Over-the-Rhine more generally. Displacing the new class of undesirables — homeless, poor white and black people — is The Enquirer’s ultimate answer. This is the same logic that produced reservations, race ghettos and concentration camps.

At a time when the Drop Inn Center has not seen its summer numbers decline from their usual high in winter, and as our nation becomes more and more marked by hypersegregation, racial profiling, a corporate wealth-fare state with runaway jobs, accompanied by material inequity and voter apathy, the turn to econocide and an incarcerative logic is no answer. We must do better.

Thomas A. Dutton is director of Miami University’s Center for Community Engagement in Over-the-Rhine.

Death Need Not Win, Survivor Says Reconciliation and hope for the condemned

By Julia Przybysz Contributing Writer While the remnants of Hurricane Ike were causing widespread destruction and power outages in the region, 80 Cincinnatians endured the strong winds and flying debris -- including one audience member who had to enlist three neighbors’ help in moving a tree blocking the road -- to make it to Bellarmine Chapel at Xavier University. They went there to hear about death – and the possibility of life.

Bellarmine and the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center (IJPC) collaborated with project Families That Matter to host Billy Moore, a former Georgia death row inmate, and Eddie Sanders, the

uncle of Ohio Death Row inmate Jeff Hill.

Both Moore and Sanders told stories of death and reconciliation. Moore, a former Georgia Death Row inmate, was convicted of murder in 1974 and sentenced to die.

Sanders lost the company of two family members in 1991: his sister, Emma Sanders, who was murdered; and his nephew, Jeffrey Hill, who was convicted of his mother’s murder and sentenced to die.

Many similarities exist between Billy Moore and Jeff Hill. Both were guilty of their crimes and under the influence of drugs at the time. Both felt deep regret and pain after realizing what they had done.

Continued on p.15

Billy Moore spoke to 80 students and community leaders about his time on Death Row. He also spoke about Jeff Hill, currently on death row in Ohio and how their cases are similar.

Photo by Julia Przybysz.

STREETVIBES October 2008

15

Editorial

Homeless Hero

Don Henry rose to the challenge, changed lives

By Georgine Getty Staff Writer

In the summer of 2003 the city of Cincinnati was going to sweep a bridge camp.

Jimmy Heath, Andy Erickson and I went down to the camp to warn the folks staying there about the impending sweep.

This is when I first met Don, who’d lived in the camp for three years. He already knew because The Enquirer had been down to interview him.

“It’s all right,” he said.

“They do this all the time. I have a secret camp to go to ’til this blows over.”

“Yeah,” said Jimmy, pulling up a milk crate. “But maybe you shouldn’t have to.”

And with this exchange, a homeless advocate was born in Don Henry.

Last month Streetvibes featured a story on Don, the bridge sweeps and the longlasting policy change that resulted from Don’s stand under the bridge. Don died Sept. 12 after a long battle with liver failure in his sister’s home with his daughter by his side.

I’m not going to re-hash the details of the bridge sweeps, even though it’s one of my favorite things to do. It’s a classic story about a down-and-out leader who took a stand with

his friends against seemingly impossible odds and won.

Who doesn’t love that story -especially when it’s true?

It’s Don’s story. The rest of us were lucky to be along for the ride.

“Did I ever tell you I was the chess champion in prison?” he asked me once with a grin.

Don was a community organizer in the purest sense of the term. His community was the people who lived on the streets with him, and he brought them together to stand up for their rights. For three days, panhandling signs were replaced with “Honk if you support the homeless” signs.

And more people honked than didn’t. Together, Don and I wrote the first press release either of us had ever written on a paper napkin from Wendy’s.

He taught me to be honest and speak from my heart. That way, even if you don’t win, you can still stand yourself. He was a strategist who seemed to know exactly how to bring people together around a common mission and also how to tell that story to the media.

Don wanted to save the world and the people he loved in it. He never gave up on a friend.

“You can’t save everyone,” I’d say.

“Yeah, but I sure wish I could save her,” Don would reply.

Then he’d try again.

He was a clever man, living off the land. His camp was ingenious, complete with a rain barrel and a coffee pot.

I always thought if catastrophe hit, I’d find Don and he’d know what to do. He was a survivor. He fought if he had to, but mostly he used words to calm. He lived the streets, but he never lost his soul to them, nor his kindness.

Don was a family man, temporarily separated from his biological family when I met him. He’d created a new family around him, taking care of the people on the streets who couldn’t care for themselves.

But his daughter was never far from his mind.

The first day I met Don, he pulled a battered picture of his baby girl out of his wallet – a beautiful child with Don’s red hair. Later, with the help of his sister and his friend, Jennifer, Don was reunited with his daughter after years apart.

After his first visit with her, he came by my office to show me pictures of them fishing together. He happily repeated every word his daughter had said, as if it were sacred.

Don was an alcoholic. He

Don Henry stood up to the city and would not let them take away his rights. His leadership led to a change in the way police handle campsites underneath overpasses. He passed away on September 12, 2008. Photo by Jimmy Heath.

was a panhandler. According to former Mayor Charlie Luken, he was an eyesore. He was an ex-con. He was homeless.

Don was a father. He was a brother and a son. He was a mentor and a friend. He was a poet, a joker and an occa-

sional pain in the butt. He was loyal and he told the truth, even to power -- especially to power. And for three hot days in 2003, he was a hero under a bridge who brought us all together.

Don Henry, you will be missed.

Death Need Not Win, continued from p.14 Moore without delay reached out to the murder victims’ family, asking for forgiveness.

Hill spent over three days crying at the jail, realizing he would never see his mother again and that he was responsible for it. Both Moore and Hill received the forgiveness of the murder victims’ families and the families’ fierce advocacy against their death sentences.

This is where their stories diverge. After 17 years on death row, living through 15 stays of execution, with people far and wide -- including Mother Teresa of Calcutta -- advocating for his release, Moore was freed and is no longer under threat of the electric chair or lethal injection. He now travels around the country and the world, telling his story with the hope to change hearts and minds about the death penalty and reach out to those currently jailed through his prison ministry and message of faith and hope.

Jeffrey Hill still waits be-

hind bars unsure about his future, whether his life will be spared. It is yet to be determined whether he will have the ability to hug his daughters

“It’s amazing that they are not listening to the victim’s family.

If the state follows through with his execution, it will only bring more harm and heartbreak.” again, hold his grandchildren for a first time or spread his own powerful anti-drug message to young people who can benefit from his story.

Hamilton County has asked the Ohio Supreme Court to set an execution date for Hill.

A date can be set at any time.

The request occurred despite adamant appeals from the murder victim’s family that he receive mercy and not be executed.

The Sanders and Hill fam-

ily continues to state, “We shared the loss of a woman who was a mother, a sister, an aunt, a grandmother. We were indeed wounded deeply. As a family, we could not and will not turn our backs on her son, our nephew, our cousin, a father and now a grandfather.

Let our voice be heard. Another death in our family will only add more suffering and grief to the burdens we have already borne.”

Pam Prude-Smithers, one of Jeff Hill’s attorneys, spoke to the crowd at Bellarmine.

“Jeff had a stay of execution since May of 2006 based on a lawsuit challenging lethal injection,” she said. “That case has now been dismissed.”

Hill has been at this stage in the process before.

“Jeff is tired,” Prude-Smithers said. “However, he is not giving up. It’s important for people to get involved: Sign the petition & ask the governor to grant Jeff clemency.”

Lisa Davis was among those in the audience.

“It’s quite interesting with Hill’s case that it involves the same family,” she said. “It’s amazing that they are not listening to the victim’s family.

If the state follows through with his execution, it will only bring more harm and heartbreak.”

Kristen Barker found inspiration in listening to Moore’s story.

“Just as demonstrated in Billy Moore’s story, there is still hope and time to take action for Jeff Hill,” she said.

“The voice of the people has

“Just as demonstrated in Billy Moore’s story, there is still hope and time to take action for Jeff Hill. The voice of the people has impact and influence.” impact and influence.”

Moore was released in part due to the lack of a fair trial

and in part due to all those who spoke out against his execution.

On Sept. 24, the US Supreme Court granted a stay to Troy Davis less than two hours before he was scheduled to be executed by the State of Georgia. That decision followed an outpouring of activism that expressed concerns over Davis’ innocence claim.

The court scheduled a review of his case.

Already nearly 2,000 Hamilton County residents have signed a petition addressed to Gov. Ted Strickland, asking that he grant Jeff Hill clemency. Area churches have distributed the petitions and residents continue to circulate them in their respective networks.

Those working with Jeff are willing to speak out to schools, churches, organizations about his case and gather further support. To get involved, contact Families That Matter at IJPC 513-579-8547 or julie@ ijpc-cincinnati.org

16

Vendors

Resource Guide

STREETVIBES October 2008

Streetvibes vendors buy the paper for 25 cents and sell the paper for $1, keeping the money they have earned. The vendors can be identified with a white badge and can be found selling the paper in Downtown Cincinnati, Clifton, Northern Kentucky and area churches. The money they earn helps them meet basic housing, food and health care needs. Not all vendors pictured.

Josephine Baskerville

Doris Binion

James Bybee

Anthony Williams

Nell Williams

Grady Cook

Cleo Wombles

James Davis

Jon Darby

Tony Drummond

Julie Walker

Kenneth Stonitsch

Antonio Hodge

Leonard Jackson

Samuel Jackson

Riccardo Taylor

Alfred Woolfolk

Berta Lambert

Mary Mueller

Brandon Nelson

Mark Shears

Terrence Williams

Charles Cole

Karen Collett

Need Help or Want to Help?

Shelter: Women and Children

Central Access Point...381-SAFE Cincinnati Union Bethel...768-6907 Bethany House...557-2873 Grace Place Catholic Worker House...681-2365 Salvation Army...762-5660 YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter...872-9259

Starting Over...961-2256

Treatment: Women

First Step Home ...961-4663

Treatment: Both

City Gospel Mission...241-5525 Justice Watch...241-0490 St. Fran/St. Joe Catholic Worker House...381-4941 Mt. Airy Shelter...661-4620

AA Hotline...351-0422 CCAT ...381-6672 Joseph House ...241-2965 Hamilton County ADAS Board ...946-4888 Recovery Health Access Center ...281-7422 Sober Living ...681-0324 Talbert House...684-7956

Shelter: Both

Advocacy

Shelter: Men

Anthony House (Youth)...961-4080 Caracole (HIV/AIDS)...761-1480 Drop Inn Center...721-0643 Interfaith Hospitality Network...471-1100 Lighthouse Youth Center...221-3350 St. John’s Housing...651-6446

Housing:

CMHA...721-4580 Excel Development...632-7149 OTR Community Housing...381-1171 Tender Mercies...721-8666 Tom Geiger House...961-4555 Dana Transitional Bridge Services Inc. ...751-0643 Volunteers of America...381-1954

Food

Lord’s Pantry...621-5300 OTR/Walnut Hills Soup Kitchen & Pantry..961-1983 Our Daily Bread...621-6364 St. Francis Soup Kitchen...535-2719

Treatment: Men

Charlie’s 3/4 House...784-1853 DIC Live In Program...721-0643 Prospect House...921-1613

Appalachian Identity Center ...621-5991 Catholic Social Action ...421-3131 Community Action Agency ...569-1840 Contact Center...381-4242 Franciscan JPIC ...721-4700 Greater Cinci Coalition for the Homeless..421-7803 Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center...5798547 Legal Aid Society ...241-9400 Ohio Justice & Policy Center ...421-1108 Peaslee Neighborhood Center ...621-5514 Project Connect Homeless Kids ...363-3300 Stop AIDS...421-2437

Health

Center for Respite Care ...621-1868 Cincinnati Health Network ...961-0600 Crossroad Health Center ...381-2247 Hamilton county Mental Health Board...946-8600 Hamilton County TB Control ...946-7628 Health Resource Center ...357-4602 Homeless Mobile Health Van...352-2902 McMicken Dental Clinic...352-6363 Mental Health Access Point...558-8888 Mercy Franciscan at St. John...981-5800 NAMI of Hamilton County..458-6670

Oral Health Council...621-0248 PATH Outreach...977-4489

Resources

Catholic Social Services...241-7745 Center for Independent Living Options...241-2600 Churches Active in Northside...591-2246 Emmanuel Community Center...241-2563 FreeStore/FoodBank...241-1064 Franciscan Haircuts from the Heart...381-0111 Goodwill industries...771-4800 Healing Connections...751-0600 Madisonville Education & Assistance Center...2715501 Mary Magdalen House...721-4811 People Working Cooperatively...351-7921 St. Vincent de Paul...562-8841 The Caring Place...631-1114 United Way...721-7900 Women Helping Women...977-5541

Northern Kentucky

Brighton Center...859-491-8303 ECHO/Hosea House...859-261-5857 Fairhaven Resuce Mission...859-491-1027 Homeward Bound Youth...859-581-1111 Mathews House...859-261-8009 NKY Homeless & Housing Coalition...859-727-0926 Parish Kitchen...859-581-7745 Pike St. Clinic...859-291-9321 Transitions, Inc...859-491-4435 Welcome House of NKY...859-431-8717 Women’s Crisis Center...859-491-3335 VA Domiciliary...859-559-5011 VA Homeless...859-572-6226

Hamilton/Middletown

St. Raephaels...863-3184 Salvation Army...863-1445 Serenity House Day Center...422-8555 Open Door Pantry...868-3276