Streetvibes August 2007 Edition

Streetvibes August, 2007

lar l o D e n O

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“I Am So Sick of ‘Out’ Food” Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be shelter for the other. Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth to the other. Now there will be no loneliness, for each of you will be companion to the other…Blessing of the Apaches

by Elissa Pogue Children experiencing homelessness, a phrase, a concept, so unbelievable in this day and age in our society, it never really strikes home, settles in on that level of believability …. denial, any kind of protection from the truth, pops up after you come face to face with their reality.

And their reality is not always one we expect. Homelessness, which conjures up images of shelters, overcrowded, maybe, but shelters, nonetheless, can mean many things to children and families experiencing it.

Michelle, a young teenager, is attending school in the east end of Cincinnati. We spent time together on the school’s playground steps every time I was at her school. Today, she was more talkative than usual.

“I am so sick of ‘out food,’ Ms. Pogue,” she said. She sat hunched over herself, head low, hair in her face.

“I’ve never ever been this heavy! My dad gets me a hamburger and fries every night from Wendy’s. We don’t have a way to cook or keep things cold. So we eat ‘out food’ every day.

The thing I really miss about having a home is a place to cook.”

Michelle’s family is a somewhat rare one: two parents living together with their three children, Michelle and her two younger brothers. They have been homeless for three years, living in and out of their van, sometimes in motels, sometimes with family until they wear out their welcome.

“We had a nice house. Then my dad lost his job. We are going back to that house, when we get the money.”

We both knew the house she had been living in was condemned and her family could not move back there anytime soon.

Michelle has never lived in a shelter. It was weeks after attending school that she opened up to a supportive teacher about her living situation. Parents and children experiencing homelessness are understandably unwilling to report their homelessness to schools, agencies and community organizations out of fear, shame, and a sense of frustration at having to tell the story over and over to

Published by

Jimmy Heath photos

new people in new situations on a daily or weekly basis.

Families Who Are Doubled Up Often Don’t See Themselves as Homeless Children and families experiencing homelessness are often invisible. They move in with friends or relatives for periods of time, depending on the situation. This is called doubling up and children in this situation are considered homeless and are, therefore, eligible for services under the McKinney Vento Homeless Assistance Act. In the school year, 2006-07, Project Connect identified and worked with 1036 children living in homeless shelters. A surprising 810 students lived in motels or a doubled up situation and received our services. The number of doubled up families served by us locally increased by 33%. Nationally, the numbers of doubled up children and families is growing so fast that there are new initiatives to help parents and professionals understand that children who are doubled up with family members, friends, or living in motels, trailers, are considered homeless and qualify for services.

The following statements are true: Under The Federal Definition of Homeless under the McKinney Vento Homeless Education Assistance Act of 2001: · Being doubled up with friends/ relatives is homelessness; · The right to choose to go to the school of origin (where the student attended prior to experiencing homelessness or school last attended) or to the school where the

student is now staying is up to the parent/guardian/family/youth; ·Students experiencing homelessness have the right to remain in their school of choice for the length of homelessness and may finish the school year at that school EVEN IF they become permanently housed before the end of the school year; · Transportation to the school of origin must be provided if needed.

Cross district transportation costs and arrangements are to be made by the school districts involved; ·Students experiencing homelessness must be immediately enrolled. Schools are responsible for acquiring school records, and cannot deny enrollment due to the lack of medical or residency records.

result in losing what feels like everything to children like Michelle.

Her story is one of family loyalty, love, and failed resources. Michelle is overburdened and fiercely committed to keeping the family together. Her story has roots in job loss, and all the upheavals this creates in the precious balance today’s families work hard to maintain 24/7.

Her story is one of skewed economics, in which there is not enough decent and affordable housing for our children, jobs that pay less than what people need to support their families, and precious little support for all the things that families and workers need for their day to day living– affordable transportation, daycare services, loan assistance.

Michelle will attend school next year at her school of origin, where her teachers know her. Finding her voice made this possible. How many children in Michelle’s situation do we miss because we put the burden on them to ask for help? And we wonder why so many of our children act like they are grown?

Elissa Pogue is a potter, a teacher of mindfulness meditation, and a social worker with the Cincinnati Public Schools who has worked with children in neighborhoods all across the city. She is coordinator of Project Connect, a Cincinnati Public Schools program that works with families who are experiencing homelessness to help keep children connected with their schools. For more information, There are many other truths to please call 363-1060.

address on the issue of children experiencing homelessness: unaccompanied youth, children not in physical custody of their parents; preschoolers; and recent immigrants.

Michelle’s family is one of thousands of families that are taking the slow slide from self-sufficiency into homelessness.

Many more live on the brink, where some combination of elements, can come together to

The Greater Cincinnati Coaltion for the Homeless

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

Becoming a Streetvibes Vendor is a great way for homeless and other lowincome people to get back on (or stay on) their feet.

Streetvibes Vendors are given an orientation and sign a code of conduct before being given a Streetvibes Vendor badge. (See this page, right, for more.)

All profits go directly to the vendor.

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

GCCH Staff Georgine Getty - Executive Director John Lavelle - Administrative Coordinator Andy Freeze - Education Coordinator Lynne Ausman - VISTA Kenneth Cheruiyot - AHA Coordinator Melvin Williams - Receptionist Linda Pittman - Receptionist Susan Smith - Volunteer Leigh Tami - Intern Streetvibes Jimmy Heath, Editor, Layout and Design Photographers Jimmy Heath, Linda Pittman, Andy Freeze, John Lavelle Cover Kids on Sidewalk, Over-the-Rhine Streetvibes accepts letters, poems, stories, essays, original graphics, and photos. We will give preference to those who are homeless or are vendors.

Subscriptions to Streetvibes, delivered to your home each month, can be purchased for $35 per year.

Address mail to: Streetvibes Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH) 117 East 12th Street Cincinnati, OH 45202 (513) 421-7803 e-mail: streetvibes@juno.com web: http://cincihomeless.org Member of:

International Network of Street Papers

North American Street Newspaper Assn.

Vendor Code of Conduct 1. Streetvibes will be distributed for one dollar ($1). I agree not to ask for more than a dollar or solicit donations for Streetvibes by any other means. If a customer donates more than $1 for a paper, I am allowed to keep the donation.

2. I will only purchase papers from the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless (GCCH).

Each paper can be purchased for a cost of 25 cents. I will always show my badge when buying papers and if I do not have my badge I cannot buy papers.

3. I will never buy papers from and/or sell papers to other vendors.

4. I agree to treat all others – customers, staff, and other vendors – respectfully. I will not use abusive language or force someone to buy a paper. I will not give a “hard sell,” be aggressive, continue to ask after a person has verbally or non-verbally said no or make someone feel threatened.

5. I agree to stay off private property when selling Streetvibes. I will not sell Streetvibes door to door.

6. I understand that I am not an employee of Streetvibes or GCCH but a contracted worker responsible for my own well-being and income.

7. I agree not to sell additional goods or products when selling Streetvibes.

8. I will not sell Streetvibes or purchase Streetvibes under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

9. There are no territories among vendors. I will respect the space of other vendors, particularly the space of vendors who have been at a spot longer.

10. I understand that my badge is the property of Streetvibes and I will not deface it. I will present my badge when purchasing papers and display my badge when selling papers. If I lose my badge I

will pay three dollars ($3) for a new one. If my badge becomes ruined because of weather or use, I will get a new badge for one dollar ($1).

11. I understand that Streetvibes strives to be a paper that covers homelessness and poverty issues while providing a source of income for the homeless.

I will try to help in this effort and spread the word.

12. I will not deceive the public by saying that I am collecting for a nonprofit charity or that I am collecting for the “homeless” in general. I will be honest in stating that all the profits from the sale of Streetvibes go to me. I will not use the word “donation.”

13. There are special rules for selling at Findlay Market. Only two vendors may sell at Findlay Market at a time. Other rules as established by Streetvibes and Findlay Market.

14. I will attend monthly meetings. Monthly meetings will occur on the first weekday of the month. The month’s paper will be released at this meeting. Anyone who cannot make the meeting must meet with Andy, the Education Coordinator, before selling Streetvibes for that month. Ten papers will be given to those who attend the meeting.

15. It is the responsibility of each vendor to police fellow vendors or former vendors. I will report violators of the rules to GCCH. The value of the paper depends on keeping it credible.

16. I understand that any infraction of the above mentioned rules will result in suspension of my privilege to sell Streetvibes and possible termination from the program. Badges and Streetvibes papers are property of GCCH and must be surrendered upon demand.

Where your Dollar Goes

75 Cents Goes Directly to Your Vendor

Streetvibes is a program of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless.

25 Cents Pays for Production

Streetvibes Vendor

Phone: (513) 421-7803 Streetvibes vendors purchase their papers for 25 cents per copy, then sell them for a $1.00 donation, keeping the 75 cent profit. The money used to purchase the paper goes to the individual vendor. GCCH does not profit from the sale of Streetvibes. Vendors are not fundraising for the Coalition for the Homeless.

ANDY

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Bloomington, IN - A homeless man returned the missing wallet of a YMCA of Bloomington-Normal assistant swim coach and was rewarded with a free Y membership for one year.

Derrick Clark found the wallet of swim coach Mandy Burge in the YMCA’s overflow parking lot near Home Sweet Home Ministries, said Jeff Boaz, Y membership services coordinator.

Clark, who later told Burge that he was a resident of the mission, returned the wallet and its contents to the YMCA. Zandt was so moved by Clark’s action that she offered him the free Y membership.

Burge said she got a telephone call from her grandmother on June 14th that Burge’s insurance company called to say that someone had found her wallet. Burge hadn’t realized her wallet was missing.

I lost my wallet and didn’t even know,’” Burge recalled this week. She figured that she dropped her wallet earlier in the afternoon when she returned to the Y from lunch.

Clark returned the wallet with its contents — debit cards, driver’s license, insurance cards, receipts and pictures — and Burge gave him a thank-you card with $10 and a pamphlet to her church.

“I just thank God for putting it on his (Clark’s) heart to return it.”

Ramirez, who is being held on $25,000 bail, had possibly been drinking, police said.

Palm Springs, CA - A Palm Springs man was arrested last month after allegedly trying to rob a homeless man, according to the Palm Springs Police Department.

Dion Clark, 41, approached the driver of a Chevrolet Cavalier parked outside Ralph’s Supermarket and asked if he could wash the windshield for money.

The driver, German Reyes Ramirez, 37, took out a gun - which turned out to be a plastic replica revolver - and demanded money from Clark, who ran away and called police, police said.

Responding officers found the vehicle, recovered the plastic gun and Clark positively identified Ramirez and the vehicle.

Nashville, TN - Nashville police are searching for the driver of a vehicle that ran over a homeless man who ultimately died from his injuries.

69 year-old Wilbur Lee Helms was found shortly before midnight on June 18th by a police officer. Investigators said Helms appeared to be extremely intoxicated and may have been lying in the road when he was struck.

Helms died from injuries that doctors said were consistent with injuries from being run over by a vehicle.

Authorities do not have any clues about the driver’s identity, but said the hit & run incident happened in downtown Nashville, a few blocks north of Bicentennial Park.

Salt Lake City, UT - A Utah woman believes she has found an answer for the world’s homeless: domes.

Rebecca South works with the Domes for the World Foundation. In 2006, South and her husband worked with the non-profit organization to erect dome homes for those who survived the 6.3 magnitude earthquake in Indonesia.

“You can’t even imagine how the people were living,” she told KUTV. Instead of volunteers, each home is built by people native to stricken areas at a cost of less than $5,000 per domicile - money which goes directly into the affected community.

The domes, built with rebar and cement, are able to withstand natural disasters - giving both shelter and security to families.

Joliet, IL - The Plan to End Homelessness Committee of the Will County Continuum of Care called its recent Open Door Day a success.

This event serves as a specialized outreach to people who are chronically homeless. The day is a collaboration of several continuum agencies, including the city of Joliet and Will County, which provide the services these individuals need.

On June 18, Morningstar Mission hosted more than 20 agencies and providers of homeless services. Attendees accessed free services such as lunch; showers; laundry facilities; haircuts; health and HIV screenings; and assistance to procure a state ID, Mainstream Benefits information, veterans’ benefits, and employment training information.

In addition, new clothing, shoes, phone cards, duffels, personal hygiene kits and bus passes were provided.

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Charlotte, NC - A 49-year-old homeless man was found dead last month in a wooded area in Gastonia, police said.

Royce Mathis was stabbed several times, Gastonia police Sgt. Jimmy West said.

West said Mathis and other homeless men occasionally stayed in the wooded area off South York Road.

Police are trying to determine who made the 911 call around 5:45 p.m. Tuesday, West said.

Police do not have a suspect at this point, he said.

This marks the second homicide in Gastonia this month. On June 9, Elma Ausrella “Jackie” Beard, 49, was fatally stabbed inside her apartment, Gastonia police said. Her boyfriend, Theodore Jordan Jr., was charged with murder, but he has not been located, police said.

Daytona Beach, FL - A 10-year-old boy apologized last month for beating and stoning a homeless Army veteran, and a judge ordered him kept in custody until psychiatric evaluations show he is not a threat to others.

“I’m sorry for what I did,” the boy said at his juvenile court sentencing, while shackled and wearing an oversized white jumpsuit. “I’m sorry for the names I called John D’Amico. I wish I could go back to that day.”

Authorities say two 10-year-olds and a teenager beat D’Amico as he and a friend walked through a crime-ridden neighborhood. One of the younger boys threw a concrete block at D’Amico’s face. Investigators never determined which boy threw the block.

D’Amico underwent reconstructive surgery, and he testified that injuries from the attack in March still linger.

“He did a lot of damage,” D’Amico, 58, told the judge. “I can’t hear. I can’t see well. I just hope the kid gets some help. You don’t want him to turn out to be a little gangster.”

The state Juvenile Justice Department will oversee the boy’s psychiatric evaluations and determine when he is released, said Linda Pruitt, a spokeswoman for state prosecutors.

The boy was convicted last month of aggravated battery and has been held in a juvenile detention center. Defense attorney Tonya Cromartie argued he should be released on probation and ordered to receive counseling.

“The help he needs can’t be accomplished in a detention facility,” Cromartie said. “It should be done under the direction of a doctor in a hospital.”

“I want to do something with my life. I want go to college,” he said. His mother declined to comment outside court.

The other young boy pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery in April and was scheduled to be sentenced July 13. He faces up to a year in juvenile detention and now is living with an aunt in Michigan.

Cleveland. OH - An agency known for helping the homeless is in need of help.

The Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless is $70,000 in debt and could close at the end of July.

In addition to the services it offers to the homeless, the agency holds candlelight vigils to raise awareness about the problem.

The executive director said the situation is the most serious crisis the group has faced in its 18 years. To help, please send donations to: NEOCH, 3631 Perkins Ave., #3A-3, Cleveland, Ohio 44114

eet vib es

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OSHA

by Elizabeth Byrd and Curt Braman On June 6, 2007, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a division of the U.S. Department of Labor, cited Rumpke’s Tire Shredders Division with seven safety violations, as a result of its investigation into Scott Johnson’s injury and subsequent death.

All violations were classified as “Serious” and included; 1) Open sided floors and platforms not guarded by standard railings, exposing workers to falls of 4-10 feet 2) A lack of standard railings and toeboards adjacent to or above dangerous equipment 3) Exposure to falling into or being caught by feeder rollers of a tire shredder

Mourning in my Own Way 4) A lack of stairs to areas needed for inspection and maintenance. Employees were observed climbing the guardrails of the shredder to perform these functions 5) Lack of machine guards and exposure to an amputation hazard around the drum drive 6) An amputation hazard from pulleys less than 7 feet from the work area that lacked safety guards 7) An amputation hazard from a belt guard that was not secured and was falling off 8) An amputation hazard from a missing guard around the sprocket wheels and chains on the drum drive.

For these violations Rumpke agreed to pay $17,000. Scott Johnson paid with his life.

International Network of Street Papers Anti-Poverty Statement of 2007 Street papers make a difference in the battle to alleviate and end poverty and homelessness.

We are pioneers in the field of practical and effective intervention to making a positive change in people’s lives. As a global movement, the International Network of Street Papers has proven this model can be replicated around the world, on all continents, to major impact. The street paper model of empowerment and enterprise can be applied beyond the street paper movement.

Today, despite decades of efforts by governments and social initiatives, homelessness and poverty continue to increase and erode our society.

Therefore, we call on governments of the world to listen to the voice of poverty and create and implement new anti-poverty strategies based on the principles of

empowerment and enterprise vested in street papers.

We call on corporations to implement corporate social responsibility policies aimed at poverty in their communities and recognize the effectiveness of street papers to support that effort.

We call on an informed society to stop viewing people experiencing poverty and homelessness as a threat and part of the problem, and see them as a part of the solution.

Nobody should live in poverty in this world, and together we have the obligation and the power to change this. It costs us all more to perpetuate poverty than to end it. We call on all sectors of society to come together in ending the injustice of poverty and to engage street papers as part of that solution.

A Tribute to Scottie Johnson

by Cleo Wombles My name is Cleo Wombles.

I first met Scottie when I was 10 years old. We played basketball, baseball, and football in our younger days. I knew him for over forty years and we became the best of friends.

We would at times go to the movies with our friends. Over the years as Scottie and I grew older we used to drink a lot of beer together.

We both worked together at various Day Labor jobs.

It hurts one’s heart now to know that I will never see him again.

He will forever be in my memories

Scottie Johnson, from an old photo

and in my heart as a friend and like a close brother.

To his family, my prayers and condolences go to them. May God bless his family.

by Georgine Getty On July 5, I headed to a memorial in honor of Scott Johnson, a day labor worker who died on June 18 from injuries he sustained on the job.

Scott was loved by many in Over the Rhine, including Cleo, one of our Streetvibes vendors who knew him for over 30 years. Nast Trinity Church offered their facilities for the memorial and Church of Our Savior provided the food. John Morawetz was there to present on worker safety because Scott died as a result of faulty safety procedures at Rumpke’s Tire Recycling, a job he acquired through TLC temporary labor hall.

But I never made it to the memorial. Instead I was detained by a young man and woman, both age 20, and their baby girl, just over a year old.

The woman was crying because she had no place for her and the baby to go for the evening.

It turns out that this young woman, who is pregnant with her second child, and her boyfriend are both day labor workers. They were homeless that night because they did not earn enough to pay for the hotel room they were staying in.

Pastor Gale from Nast Trinity, the receptionist of Emmanuel Community Center and I pooled our mental resources and called around. I was overwhelmed by the kindness of these two extraordinary women as well as the compassion of the agencies we called.

Lighthouse Youth Services set an appointment for the next morning to get the young woman into permanent supportive housing. Salvation Army agreed to provide them with emergency shelter for the evening. The Emmanuel Center, seeing how smart and curious the baby was, had the young woman fill out an enrollment form on the spot, even though the baby was two months shy of the age limit. Elizabeth and Thomas from the Day Labor Organizing Project sat outside and talked to the young man,

telling him about DLOP’s regular meetings. All in all, it went as well as it could. As I handed back the sleeping baby on the steps of the Salvation Army, I sincerely wished this young couple all of the luck in the world.

And then I got angry. I’m angry that Scott Johnson died. I’m angry that his employers couldn’t, no, wouldn’t provide him with the safe workplace he needed to survive. I’m angry that his death was so gruesome, his friends and family so bereaved. I’m always angry when a life is wasted, especially when it’s wasted for something so vile as the greed of the labor halls and the companies that use them to save money.

And I’m angry that these two young people, and their beautiful baby, are homeless tonight. I’m angry that they work hard, every day that they can, so that they can support themselves and that today, they just didn’t make it. I’m angry that the young man had to gently lecture the woman on swallowing her pride tonight and going to a shelter, for the good of her babies; the one in her arms and the one on the way. I’m angry that she did have to swallow her pride, which seems to be one of the few things she’d ever been able to depend on.

And why? Because the work day labor workers produce is not valued. Because to places like TLC and Labor Ready and Minutemen these two are just warm bodies to stick in terrible jobs and then underpay. It is time for this country to wake up and demand justice for the day labor workers who work every single day only to rest their heads at night in our shelters. It is time for us to stop blaming people for being homeless and look behind their stories to find the men and women who profit from their misery.

So I didn’t make it to Scott’s memorial, not today. But I did participate in a wake for a young woman’s pride. And I hope I also witnessed the start of the re-birth of a young family into some sort of better life.

Scott Johnson Memorial

by Elizabeth Byrd & Curt Braman Forty Day Labor Workers and their supporters from the Clergy, Labor and Community Organizations gathered to remember Scott Johnson at a Memorial Service, called by the Day Labor Organizing Project (DLOP). It was held at Nast Trinity United Methodist Church on July 5, 2007. Following prayer and recollection from those who knew Mr. Johnson, the group reached a consensus that a fitting memorial would be to identify and work to improve the many unsafe working situations Day Labors encounter almost daily.

A colleague of Mr. Johnson, who had worked with him at the Rumpke Facility that was the site of his life ending injuries, pointed out that neither she or any other temporary workers received safety training

before or during their assignments at Rumpke.

Other workers were quick to relate dozens of other hazards they have faced at workplaces across the Cincinnati area. They found common threads of lack of training, safety equipment, properly functioning equipment and oversight in many of these situations.

The hour long discussion closed with workers recognizing the need for further discussion and activity that would address workplace safety for Day Laborers. Several workers volunteered to form a Safety Committee with the support of DLOP. Anyone interested in participating should contact Don Sherman at the Cincinnati Interfaith Workers Center located at 1415 Walnut; 621-5991.

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AGENCY SPOTLIGHT Madisonville Education and Assistance Center (MEAC)

The Madisonville Education and Assistance Center

by Linda Pittman This newest member of our agencies has been in operation since 1986 when 12 community churches and the Madisonville Community Council pooled the community’s resources to better serve individuals and families who reside in the 45227 zip code area (Fairfax, Madison Place, Madisonville, and Mariemont) with critical needs such as food, clothing, rent and utility assistance. In 2003 the neighboring communities of the East End,

Hyde Park and Oakley were added to its service area.

Today, MEAC is a non-profit organization with the expanded support of 19 community churches and collaboration from the City of Cincinnati, the Cincinnati-Hamilton County Community Action Agency and the Freestore Foodbank.

MEAC food and clothes pantries are located in the Eastminster Presbyterian Church on 4600 Erie Avenue and financial assistance applications are taken in the adjacent building. On-site applications are accepted for Food Stamps, medical benefits (Healthy Start, Healthy Families, and Medicaid) WIC, cash assistance (TANF), lowincome home e n e r g y assistance program (HEAP), child care subsidy, and federal and state taxes. In the month of June, 2007,

MEAC was able to service 400 individuals, or about 150 families.

The services include a food pantry and clothes closet, open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. and is closed for lunch from 1-2 p.m.

Wednesday nights is the Feed and Seed program, a dinner served between 5:007:00 p.m. Assistance is given with personal hygiene products, haircut/ haircare vouchers, bus tokens and case management. Financial help (as long as funds allow) includes rent (no mortgages), gas and electric, birth certificates, State ID’s and Lifeline phone service. You can call 271-5501 for assistance.

Disenfranchised Peoples of God

by Charles Evegan Although I do not have a college degree, I have a GED, some college, and a life time of experiences and talents that are usable in the world of employment. I can type 70 words per minute and my data entry keystrokes are between 8 and 10 thousand an hour. I am 44 years old and my people skills and talents seasoned with Grace and Salt makes me an ideal candidate for a good employee, wherever I may chose to be employed.

I went to prison for robbery in 1991 and every time I go up for a job interview I am denied meaningful employment and fair pay. Even the temp services take advantage of the poor and homeless by denying them fair pay. Taking 7 to 10 dollars out of our checks for gas although the job may be at the stadium and is walking distance, most temporary agencies,

refusieto let us walk or catch the bus. face. They say one thing but mean The constitution states in the 5th another. We create and perpetuate the amendment, “Nor shall any person be same injustices that the letter of the law subjected to be twice put in jeopardy was intended to protect.

Law makers interpret away the of life or limb.” The 14th amendment, rights of the people by “Nor any person denied the equal making excuses for doing so under the cloak protection of the law.”

A person with a of another law. Thus denying us the equal record is subjected to protection under the law double and triple which is intended to jeopardy by being guarantee that we will denied meaningful employment. We have not be punished twice for the same offense. already been convicted and paid for it. Now Cincinnati seems to be a testing ground for the we are convicted again breaking of peoples’ socially, by being rights for monetary or denied positions in this Charles Evegan world that limits chances of pursuing material gain. A few years ago the happiness. They do this by enforcing justice center was charging 30 dollars laws that discriminate against felons . to incarcerate any one arrested. Later These laws are contradictory on its the ordinance was ruled

City Wasting Money Again

by Leigh Tami On any given night, between 1,300 and 1,500 people are homeless in Cincinnati. Twenty-nine percent of those experiencing homelessness are children, and thirty-three percent of those children are under the age of five years old. Accessibility to affordable housing is at a low, and hate crimes against the homeless are at a high. Day Laborers are dying from limb amputations and other serious injuries resulting from unsafe conditions while

being paid a laughably small and aptly named minimum wage. After reviewing statistics like these, it would seem that the financial priorities of the city of Cincinnati would drastically shift toward funding human services and resolving the ever-worsening problems of homelessness and poverty.

Unfortunately, as far as spending is concerned, City Council has other things in mind. As of this June, new rules regarding sidewalk benches were approved by council in order to

“improve the curb appeal” of Cincinnati.

As if this were not ridiculous enough by itself, the city admits that the extra staff and money necessary to immediately fund this endeavor are really not there, so it aims to complete this project by the end of the year. Despite this apparent setback, City Council is very serious about said bench removal: the goal is removal of roughly one thousand benches on Cincinnati sidewalks. Oh, and incase any law-abiding citizens spot and want to report an “illegal bench”, the city has conveniently provided a phone number for you to call so that we

unconstitutional and was repealed and then they were forced to pay back the people. But the city still profited an undisclosed amount of dollars because they may have only paid back 1/100th of the money they took in that time period.

Although a public notice was made known, some people died, some left town, some were incarcerated and some people simply didn’t care. So the city profited millions.

This is my first piece on disenfranchised people. I am a member of the LORDS GYM on 12th and Race Street, downtown across from Washington Park. If anyone has comments or suggestions or positive feedback on my first article or even a not so positive one please come and visit the Lords Gym or chuckevegan@yahoo.com Sincerely and Still unemployed

can make sure that our time and energy is properly used in the removal of aesthetically displeasing benches.

To summarize the situation, we have very real and very serious problems of poverty, homelessness, and social/ economic injustice plaguing the streets of our city, but are instead spending money we don’t have and staff that is not available on a ludicrous endeavor to remove sidewalk benches. It seems that instead of addressing the deep rooted problems that already exist in our city, we are instead wasting time and resources to create and then “solve” new ones.

STREETVIBES Page 6

“Bum Fights” Continues to Influence Teens

by Andy Freeze One way in which I stay up to date on information regarding the homeless population is subscribing to Yahoo News Alerts. Each day Yahoo sends out a news feed with different articles that contain the word “homeless.” Some days the articles are about good things going on in different cities.

I recently read that in Denver, they are using old parking meters to collect money for organizations that work with the homeless. In Fresno, the Fresno airport is taking all of the confiscated toiletries and donating them to homeless organizations so that they can be used instead of thrown away.

It is always good to see these stories and to learn what we here in Cincinnati can do to continue helping those who are homeless.

However, those articles have been far too few in recent weeks because I can’t seem to open a news feed without seeing an article about a homeless person being attacked. On Monday, July 9, I looked at the news feed and found two stories about teens attacking the homeless.

One story was from the Orlando area, where six to eight teens were being sought after two men that were sleeping in an abandoned house were attacked, stabbed, and beaten with baseball bats. The teens they are looking for are between the ages of 16 and 22. Fortunately the injuries were not life threatening,

but there is something wrong with this picture. What are teenagers being taught that they think it is okay or fun to go and beat the crap out of others because they are less fortunate?

That same day, another story surfaced from Chicago where a homeless man apparently bumped into a group of men as they were leaving a nearby bar on a Sunday night. They beat the man with some sort of object, possible a sign, metal cable, or both. “They beat this homeless guy pretty good,” said a Central district Police captain.

And a week later on Tuesday July 17, I got word of another group of teens that attacked a group of homeless people. This one occurred in Los Angeles where four teens were arrested for a series of attacks that they video taped on their cell phones with the intent of posting it on the internet. These teens threw bikes on top of homeless peoples tents, set smoke bombs off while people where sleeping, set blankets on fire, and opened tents up and shot people with an airsoft pistol.

The teens in Los Angeles said they were influence by a movie series called “Bum Fights,” a video series that deliberately disregards the humanity of homeless people.

If you have never seen the DVD series, it can only be described as barbaric and cruel. In some of the more graphic scenes a homeless man is convinced to drink his own urine because he thinks its beer, a homeless man is paid to pull his tooth out with pliers, and one homeless man breaking another homeless man’s ankle. These videos 20 - Total number of deaths as a result of homeless are the main reason behind hate crimes in 2006 the recent spike in crimes committed against the homeless.

189 - Total number of deaths as a result of But what is worse homeless hate crimes in the past 8 years is that many of the United State’s top retailers continue to sell these 122 - Total number of non-lethal attacks against the videos. These retailers homeless in 2006 include Tower Records, Borders Books, Best Buy, 425 - Total number of non-lethal attacks against the Amazon.com, Virgin Mega Stores, Yahoo Shopping, homeless in the past 8 years and Circuit City.

Campaigns run from the 614 - total number of attacks against the homeless National Coalition and

Go Figure

GCCH work to eliminate the sales of these DVD’s; however, they only disappear for a few months. After the National Coalition’s latest campaign, Amazon and Circuit City have pulled them from their shelves.

Our society allows the homeless population to be exploited and directly markets this exploitation as entertainment towards our youth. If this were occurring with any other group of people these DVDs would never be sold. But there continues to be no public outcry against this. Some will say that they have never heard of it or haven’t seen it. But these videos are marketed toward our youth and our youth are watching it and then going out on the streets and doing similar inhumane and cruel things.

We need you to stand up against this awful injustice that is occurring. NO store should be carrying these DVDs and they should not be making it into the hands of our youth. Below, we have listed the names and addresses of the CEOs of the retailers that still continue to sell these videos. We have temporarily succeeded in the past, but we still need to fight. Nothing will change if they do not hear from the public and realize how injust and inhumane these videos are. If we don’t advocate for our homeless friends, who will?

STOP the retailers who still sell the “Bum Fights” movies....

Borders Books George Jones, CEO 100 Phoenix Drive Ann Arbor, MI 48108 Tower Records Joe D’AMico, CEO 2500 Del Monte St. West Sacramento, CA 95691 Best Buy Brad Anderson P.O. Box 9312 Minneapolis, MN 55440 Yahoo Inc. Terry Semel 701 First Avenue Sunnyvale, CA94089

in the past 8 years

68 - Percentage of accused/convicted who are between the age of 13 and 19

37 - Percentage of accused/convicted who are under the age of 17

88 - Percentage of accused/convicted who are under the age of 25

11 to 75 - Age range of accused 4 Months to 74 - Age range of homeless victims

Dear Readers!

Send us your Vendor Stories Do you have a favorite Streetvibes Vendor that you would like to tell us about? Send your stories or comments to: Streetvibes@juno.com or Streetvibes 117 E 12th St. Cincinnati, OH 45202

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

STREETVIBES Page 7 American people are Peace Village committed2. The to some form of good

by Dr. Steve Sunderland The Supreme Court decided by a vote of 5 to 4 to throw out school board plans by Seattle and Louisville because of the use of race to balance schools. 4 Justices were agreed that race could not be used. One Justice said he agreed with the majority but race could sometimes be used. 4 other Justices said that the majority was wrong based on precedents of previous cases over the past 50 years.

Dear Chief Justice Roberts: The recent decision of the majority of the Supreme Court to change systems of school discrimination from those that are race based to “colorblind” ones, ignores some of the important themes of the past 60 years: 1. The American people have tried to move from segregated frames of reference to integrated ones even though many states, local and federal practitioners along with religious and political leaders have fought almost every attempt. The good will of the American people stretches back a long way in the area of civil rights: early in our Revolutionary years, Benjamin Franklin, a former slave owner, led an abolitionist movement that had a deep impression on Washington and Jefferson. The failure to abolish slavery before the Civil War, as Britain did, has led to halting steps for justice in the minds of many Americans. We are caught, again, with confusion about whether our Constitution is a document of justice or injustice. Americans, taking the principles of this Court’s latest decision, can now avoid the good conscience effort to seek to break down segregated schooling and housing patterns, economic discriminatory rules, and religious bigotry. Traditionally, many citizens of this country know what is right; yet, our Supreme Court has chosen to act as if racial prejudice against children is a past experience and need not be corrected by plans for inclusion. “I fear the consequences... for the law, for the schools, for the democratic process, and for American’s efforts to create, out of its diversity, one Nation.” Dissent by Justice Bryer in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 et al.

education for their children even though segregated systems of education, created as part of a private and parochial system, have too often sent a counter message: “We need to be separate if we are to have “good” education.” This Court’s decision makes it difficult to raise the standard of justice in education for all of our children and plays into the fears and biases of our public that “racially balanced” schools may lower educational standards. The American public knows that prejudice, hatred, and unfairness are not correct attitudes in terms of defining educational systems for children and neighborhoods. The legacy of racism has created a mind-set that says that re-segregation is “the best we can do.” The school systems of Louisville, Seattle, Cincinnati and other major cities reflects a stubborn racism only partially relieved by prior Supreme Court rulings. Rather than focus on the tremendous breakthroughs to improve diversity in teacher training, neighborhood involvement, and the political action of school boards since the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown, your Court’s decision reinforces the attitude of consigning children to poor schools, poor employment and deteriorating cities. “And what of law’s concern to diminish and peacefully settle conflict among the Nation’s people? Instead of accommodating different goodfaith visions of our country and our Constitution, today’s holding upsets settled expectation, creates legal uncertainty, and threatens to produce considerable further litigation, aggravating race-related conflict.”

Justice Bryer for the minority in the dissent.

3. The American people are committed to

education that sees the gifts of every child and builds on these gifts through creative, compassionate, and integrated education. The American experience of segregation fosters a negative and faulty perspective on what it takes to build

good schools and educate healthy children. Children who are hated for their skin color, or, treated rudely because of their use of a language different from English, or, singled out to receive “labels” that hide their human potential, are citizens that will have to fight against your decision to make justice the central value of our schools. The Court’s decision goes against research in education that reveals the many gifts of children pervious excluded from integrated systems of education. These gifts cannot easily be seen without methods that respect the culture of each child and methods that can look past skin color, language skills and surface “disabilities.””...the plurality’s approach risks serious harm to the law and for the Nation.

Its view of the law rests either upon a denial of the distinction between exclusionary and inclusive use of race-conscious criteria in the context

of the Equal Protection Clause, or upon such a rigid application of its “test” that the distinction loses practical significance. Consequently, the Court’s decision today slows down and sets back the work of local school boards to bring about racially diverse schools.” Justice Bryer for the four dissenting Justices.

4. The efforts to build a strong America have never been easy. The questions surrounding prejudice have been very deep elements in our national character.

Perhaps slavery has so frightened the average majority American that only very limited progress can be sustained in our schools. Perhaps our majority fears of difference will continue to construct temporary barriers to those students and their families, also Americans, who seek an America that is fundamentally welcoming of difference, . The ruling of your Court is a setback for parents and children in our schools.

But are only a temporary slowing down of what is a stronger and more compassionate force in our society.

Racial harmony can be obtained.

Inclusion of students based on conscious and planned choices will occur. The Supreme Court, prior to 1954, walked backward on American justice. The last 60 years have taught us that the journey to change our society is rarely easy, frequently filled with conflict, and inextricably bound up with historical ignorance. Yet, the Supreme Court changed for the better and improved our country. Your decision threatens all of this progress. Yet, we see that we must raise our voices in protest of your ideas. The songs we sing shall inspire us until that day when, “We shall overcome.”

STREETVIBES Page 8

Streetvibes Float Saves the Day

by Streetvibes Staff Vendors and the Streetvibes staff of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless joined with the Cincinnati Beacon and marched in the Northside 4th of July Day Parade.

Streetvibes borrowed and then decorated a van from the Drop Inn Center.

Streetvibes and the Cincinnati Beacon joined to form an independent media float. Streetvibes vendors passed out old copies of Streetvibes with information on what Streetvibes is. The Beacon also passed out copies of their July issue.

The Streetvibes and parade walkers also carried signs showing their support for freedom of speech and the Northside Community. The signs included, “Truth, Justice: it’s the Streetvibes Way,” “Mom, Apple Pie, and Streetvibes,” “Happy Birthday America! Love, Streetvibes,” “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Streetvibes,” and “Free Speech is Patriotic.”

As the Streetvibes float neared the end of the parade route, it was quickly pulled aside to be used to cut down a falling limb that was overhanging the parade route. Streetvibes saved the parade and everyone who participated had a great time.

Thanks to Northside for coming out and supporting Streetvibes and the Cincinnati Beacon and thanks to all those who walked the parade route with us.

The Streetvibes float (borrowed van from Drop Inn Center) and volunteers

Marchers in Northside Parade for IJPC (Inter-Community Justice and Peace Center)

What if the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless had a penny for every time you searched the Internet?

Iraq War Realities

by Jimmy Heath U.S.Monthly Spending in Iraq - $12 billion, in 2007

Lost & unaccounted for in Iraq - $9 billion of US taxpayers’ money and $549.7 million in spare parts shipped in 2004 to US contractors Lost & unaccounted for in Iraq - $9 billion of US taxpayers’ money and $549.7 million in spare parts shipped in 2004 to US contractors

Search the web with www.goodsearch.com and money from Yahoo advertisers will go to the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless without you spending a dime!

Journalists killed - 112, 74 by murder and 38 by acts of war

US Troops Wounded - 26,806, 20% of which are serious brain or spinal injuries (total excludes psychological injuries)

Iraqis Displaced Inside Iraq, by Iraq War, as of May 2007 - 2,085,000

3,628 US Soldiers Killed, 26,806 Seriously Wounded

Iraqis “strongly opposed to presence of coalition troops - 82%

Iraqis who believe Coalition forces are responsible for any improvement in security - less than 1% 90% of Iraqis say Iraq better under Saddam tyranny 59% of Americans say Iraq war “a mistake”

STREETVIBES Page 9

25,000 people will experience homelessness at some point in Cincinnati this year • 29% of the homeless in Cincinnati are children • In the last fif-

Cincinnati Urban Experience College, High School, and Youth Group students will come to Cincinnati, Ohio to learn about issues of homelessness and poverty through service, educational experiences, and reflection. Participants will come to a greater understanding of and empathy for the complexities of poverty in an urban environment through experiential learning and guided reflection.

Program Components: Service: Groups perform service at agencies and organizations in Urban Cincinnati that deal with poverty and homelessness issues directly. Through service work, participants have personal experiences with issues and gain knowledge.

Education: Participants will take part in activities that teach them about poverty issues. Examples include speakers, education activities, experiential/simulation exercises, and videos.

Reflection: Discussion of service, education, experiences, and observations among peers. Focus on drawing connections and learning.

Living: Participants live together in a simple community setting. Ideally, they stay in the community in which they are serving and learning.

For more information contact: Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless Andy Freeze 117 East 12th St. Cincinnati, OH 45202

Phone: (513) 421-7803 x 14 Email: andytfreeze@yahoo.com www.cincihomeless.org

homelessness in Cincinnati are lack of affordable housing and the loss of income • A person on food stamps in Ohio receives on average $1.04 per meal

teen years the homeless population has risen 150% in Cincinnati • The leading causes of

STREETVIBES Page 10

National News....

Workers Lose As Senate Legislation Fails

Human Needs Report - Legislation that would have boosted access to higher wages and better fringe benefits through unionization will not be going anywhere - for now.

The Senate blocked a vote that would have ended the delaying tactic of further debate on the Employee Free Choice Act (S.1041). The motion failed 51-48, nine votes short of the 60 votes needed to invoke closure, effectively stalling the legislation.

All Democrats (except for Sen. Johnson, D-SD, who is still recovering from a major health issue) voted in favor of ending debate, along with Sen. Specter (R-PA). All other Republicans voted against closure, which can be interpreted as opposition to S. 1041. H.R. 800, the House counterpart bill, passed with bipartisan support by a vote of 241185 in March. However, that vote was well short of the two-thirds majority that would be needed to override a veto promised by President Bush.

The bill would have leveled the playing field

in the workplace by allowing workers to join a union without employer interference, requiring mediation and arbitration between the union and employer if a timely agreement is not reached during bargaining on the first contract, and creating penalties for employers who intimidate employees. Currently, employers have the right to demand a secret ballot election before a union can be certified. In the proposed legislation, union organizers could bypass elections when a majority of employees sign cards in favor of establishing union representation, known as “card check.”

Too many employers have carried out unjust practices against union employees. Currently, 92 percent of employers force employees to attend mandatory closed-door meetings against the union.

One in four employers illegally fire at least one worker for union activity during organizing campaigns. EFCA would greatly reduce such illegal and intimidating tactics by increasing penalties on

employers for violations against employees’ rights.

Reports confirm clear advantages for union workers. For example, union workers’ median weekly earnings amount to around $833 while nonunion workers’ median weekly earnings only amount to $642 – a 30 percent difference. While 15 percent of nonunion workers are without health care coverage, only 2.5 percent of union workers are without health insurance. Other fringe benefits such as guaranteed pensions, short-term disability benefits and paid vacation days are improved for workers affiliated with a union. In addition, women, African Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans disproportionately receive better wages when they are able to associate with a union.

According to a Peter D. Hart survey, 60 million Americans who are currently nonunion workers say they want to have a union in their workplace.

Employment Issues for the Homeless

by Charles Blachford Currently the Ohio job market is extremely competitive. With the unemployment rate above the national average hundreds of thousands of people are finding it very difficult to land a job that pays a livable wage.

For homeless people throughout the state finding a job can be even more difficult. Dealing with the instability of not having a permanent residence and adding the rigorous process of finding employment can be overbearing for people.

Sometimes the only opportunity for employment for the homeless is day labor jobs.

Currently there are very few laws that prohibit unfair treatment on these types of jobs. Homeless people are sometimes brought to work sites and forced to wait for hours before they can work. For instance someone may be picked up at 8am to start a job and

dropped off at 6pm but only get paid for 4 hours worth of work because they were forced to sit around idle for 6 hours.

Some of the other obstacles that many homeless people have to overcome to obtain employment is; not having a phone number for employers to call them back at, lack of transportation in rural areas, the uncertainty of daily location, the absence of personal security, the desperation to fill immediate needs (food, clothing, etc), and little or no access to bathing facilities.

If a homeless person is able to secure a job their troubles are far from over. To sustain a job and save money while living in such dire circumstances is extremely difficult because the same issues of uncertainty, insecurity, and cleanliness are still present.

Also it can be a couple of months before enough money

is saved to pay for a security deposit, first month’s rent, and utility deposits. Imagine juggling a full-time job along with the stress and difficulties of being homeless, it can be overwhelming to say the least.

Often it is so overbearing dealing with homelessness and employment at the same time that people prematurely move into situations in unstable environments or move in with unstable people. This premature move can sometimes lead to the recurrence of homelessness and the need to start at square one.

In America we are taught to believe that if we get a job and work hard everything will be alright.

Unfortunately, in America this is not always the case.

There needs to be more programs and public dollars available to help people get over the hump and stabilize when they are working but still struggling with poverty and homelessness.

Hungry in Louisiana Almost 22 months after Hurricane Katrina, tens of thousands of Louisianans still need help providing food for themselves and their families.

Charitable food services are no longer seeing the massive lines that existed in the storm’s aftermath but demand remains at twice pre-storm levels. That has food banks across the state pleading for help.

Federal and state officials need to make sure existing food and nutrition programs are working as intended. But all of us can help fellow Louisianans by donating to food banks.

The Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana, which serves 23 South Louisiana parishes, estimates it will need 25 million pounds of food over the next 12 months. The organization handled 14 million pounds annually preKatrina.

Demand remains high in part because of recent reductions in federal funding for nutrition programs, which state and food bank officials said dropped 35 percent this fiscal year.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the money, said the cuts owe to the end of one-time emergency programs after Katrina. But federal funding for some non-emergency food and nutrition programs also was reduced due to population losses.

The region’s recovery, however, is far from over. Federal officials need to examine the current

need to evaluate whether additional measures are warranted.

Other programs, such as food stamps, get federal funding based on enrollment. Thus Louisianans in need who are not enrolled should check their eligibility by contacting the state Social Services Department at (888) 524-3578. Groups serving meals also should pass along enrollment information.

Money is not the only problem, though.

Families can’t have more than $3,000 in assets, including bank savings, to qualify for food stamps.

But charities report that some families are being denied because they have higher bank balances due to insurance proceeds or Road Home grants to rebuild their homes. Federal and state officials need to make sure that efforts to rebuild are not counted against people who need help purchasing food.

In the meantime, all of us can help. To donate money or food to the greater New Orleans food bank, call (504) 734-1322. The group has a well-established reputation, and less than 3 cents per dollar go for administrative and fundraising costs, according to private services that rate charities.

More importantly, the food bank is now part of the state’s emergency response plan, yet officials estimate it could face a deficit of 10 million pounds of food if disaster strikes.

So what you give now could end up helping you during another storm.

The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless and Streetvibes wish to thank Panera Bread at Gilmore Square in Fairfield for their donations of bread, pastries, bagels and sweets.

The Breads, Pastries and Bagels are used throughout the week by our vendors and people who visit the Homeless Coalition lobby to use the phone or get out of the heat

STREETVIBES Page 11

Looming Crisis: Housing for the Elderly

by Brandon Lichtinger (Street Sense, USA) It’s 9:30 a.m. on the Friday before Memorial Day, and John Monte is busy ladling homemade mushroom soup for diners at the Dinner Program for Homeless Women, or as the servers casually call it, “The 9:30 Club.”

Monte, 68, has worked as a cook for most of his adult life and has worked in this kitchen for eight months.

He is also homeless, and is staying with one of his sons until he can find affordable housing in the D.C. area.

“It’s difficult,” Monte said. “We can’t pay [D.C. rent], especially on a fixed income. The rent is too high.”

Monte’s younger brother, George Eskridge, volunteers at the Lutheran Church when he is needed there. Eskridge, 58, has worked in construction, retail, and the food industry in the past. He is also homeless.

He takes temporary work when he can get it, and mostly works construction and janitorial jobs.

“The cost of living keeps going up, while our salary is not,” Eskridge said. “If you’re not a professional, with a professional career and a job, you can’t make it.”

“Terrifying” is how Eskridge describes being homeless and facing his 60s in the District. And Eskridge is not alone in his fears.

With the cost of housing increasing much faster than the minimum wage and Social Security income, and with two of the District’s largest elder-care facilities slated to close, many senior citizens – both homeless and housed – are worried about future housing.

One diner over 60, who wished to remain anonymous, said getting housing in D.C. as an elderly homeless person is extremely difficult.

“A majority of people directly associated with certain programs like Section 8 have problems,” he said. “The list is either backed up or the housing is unaffordable.”

Section 8 is one of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s housing assistance voucher programs for low-income families and individuals.

Under Section 8, tenants pay a portion of their rent, typically around 30 per cent of their income, and the local housing authority covers the remainder. HUD determines a cap on housing costs, called the “Free Market Rate” or FMR. For D.C., the FMR for a one-bedroom apartment is $1,134. In order to afford this rental price, a D.C. resident would have to make an annual income of $45,360; at D.C.’s minimum wage of $7, a full-time employee would only make $14,560 yearly.

“I’m just trying to get a boost any way that I can,” Eskridge said. “I’m just working for minimum wage, and if you don’t have a professional career, you can’t do it. And companies are subcontracting their own employment, but if you don’t have references, you can’t get it. You have to know somebody to [get work].”

Monte receives Supplemental Security Income of $603 each month, the amount established for individuals in D.C. “An affordable one-bedroom apartment for me would be $400 [per month],” Monte said. “At least that way there’s some leeway so I can feed myself. If I get a place to stay, I can maintain it. In a way, the older population can take care of themselves, at least the ones that [are physically able]. But those that can’t take care of themselves, they should be taken care of.”

However, D.C.’s assisted living population faces increasing difficulty in getting that care. For many of the area’s elderly who can’t take care of themselves, a potential housing crisis looms on the horizon, as two of the area’s 20 assisted living homes are scheduled to close in the near future.

Nine weeks ago, citing a decrease in Medicaid funding, the Beverly Living Center in the Northwest announced its plans to close. As recently as April, the assisted living home had 335 patients; now those patients are looking for housing alternatives.

Grant Park Care Center, another area assisted living home, announced its discharge model plan last

Friday. While the center has not specified whether it will permanently close its doors, there’s a definite possibility that its 280 patients will be seeking housing in the near future.

Unfortunately, few viable options exist in the D.C. area. The city’s full-care facilities are currently running at 98 per cent capacity, and Beverly Living Center residents have been forced to move to nursing homes in Maryland and Virginia. Available spaces in those states are also filling up. As more and more former D.C. residents take up beds in the states’ 32 nursing homes, care centers are starting to create waiting lists for patients.

Assisted-living patients also have to reapply for Medicaid when they move out of the District, which proves to be a huge roadblock for many. Patients cannot move until they get Medicaid coverage, and D.C. nursing homes could close before patients successfully maneuver past all of the red tape.

“It’s a logistical nightmare,” said Gerald Kasunic, an ombudsman for the Office of D.C. Long Term Care Program. “My worst fear would be that places start closing their doors and leave no place for patients to go.”

Kasunic, sponsored and supported by the Legal Counsel for the Elderly, AARP, and the D.C. Office on Aging, said that if places closed their doors, many of the city’s elderly would be in need of full-time care on the streets.

“Housing providers need to understand that elderly and disabled people need low-income housing,” Kasunic said.

For Monte and Eskridge, the need for cheaper housing in the D.C. area remains.

“I’m just trying to make it to Social Security and retirement, living day by day,” Eskridge said. “Housing is my biggest worry. That’s it. Don’t ever get to my age and think you’re going to make it without some kind of help,”

Barriers to Finding Work When Homeless

by Jessica P. Morrell and Genny Nelson (Gray Sunshine Publishing) One of the biggest myths is that homeless people don’t want to work. I can name on one hand those who have fit that line during the last thirty years. Everyone else just wants the opportunity to earn their own meals. That’s why our customers said to Sandy and me when we founded Sisters, “Don’t be about free food: do this with dignity; either make it cheap enough that I can pay for it on my income, or give me the chance to work for my meal.” Over and over, people have come to us years later to say, “Thank you for not robbing me of my dignity.”

Your humanity doesn’t go away just because society doesn’t see it.

It angers me that we don’t have enough places that afford people opportunities after they get their lives together. While people have done some pretty inappropriate things in their lives, all they’re saying is, “I’m not proud of what I’ve done, but I’ve done my time.” This is not about feeling sorry for people or being a bleeding-heart liberal. It’s about justice and human rights.

When talking about obstacles to finding work, all our narrators described that keeping up grooming was essential to obtaining work.

Some also talked about how landing a job was impossible when you have bad or missing teeth, or other physical manifestations of homelessness.

Logan: Keep your appearance up, and then people have to be motivated to want to go to work. I am a motivated kind of person. I want

to work.

Dale: Did you ever go look for a job with a backpack on your back? Boss says, ‘What’s your address?’ [When he discovers he has none]: ‘Well, we’ll call and let you know.’ You are not getting the job when they see you are homeless; you got no telephone, you got a week bed [in a shelter]. If you got an address and someplace to leave your stuff, you can actually wear your best clothes and go there without a backpack on your back and make your best presentation to the person.

Like Dale, Steve believed that there was work available, but it required practical solutions and incentive to find it.

Steve: Do not tell me that there are no jobs. And if there are not, it is because they are going to those who have an education or have the money or have connections or what have you. But it is impossible to find a job when you do not have an address. If you have an address downtown, especially in Old Town, any job you are looking for, you would hear, ‘Oh, okay, sure, we’ll take an application,’ and then it goes in the garbage can. And yes, I have worked in a number of jobs, odd jobs, under-the-table … but when they find out that you are from that class of people, well, then either they assume that you cannot do it and they let you go, or some convenient excuse comes along.

Sisters: So, if you were looking at solutions to ending individual homelessness and ending homelessness in general, what would

make a real difference?

Steve: [For] those who are homeless now, I would suggest laundry services, clothing services, and I do not mean clothing from the 1920s, I mean, clothing that is appropriate for a job.

Mack explained if there are jobs available, they are for low wages, which makes ending their cycle of homelessness impossible.

Mack: I don’t want to spend the rest of my life at six dollars an hour. I can’t do nothing with my life. I’d rather walk around on the streets, eat out here and there and have some time to myself and work a day a week than to get out there and kill myself and have nothing.

Worry about losing your job, trying to maintain a roof over your head, from that kind of money?

I don’t even know how people pay rent for that kind of money. Do you? Unless you live at home with your folks.

Trevor explained that some days he chose to miss work in order to get clean.

Trevor: The shower times are horrible. I mean you can take a shower at 7:30 in the morning, but you know what? If you are not at day labor at 5:30 in the morning you are not going to go out. I would suggest an evening shower, like 7 or something like that, or something bright and early in the morning, four o’clock, or 4:30.

If I had a roof over my head and a place I could shower, I think I could become a productive member of society. It is a matter of just having a place to lie down at the end of the day.

STREETVIBES Page 12

Going and growing organic: Consumers turning to home“People are looking for local food,” Uncles days,” Fernando said. “But they wanted corn for four grown produce said. “That’s where these trends are going.” to five months.”

by Anthony DeAngelis North Andover, MA - Clutching an overstuffed plastic bag of snap peas, Bob Maclean emerges from J&F farmstand in Derry with a smile. He and his wife, Betty, have ditched the produce aisle at their local supermarket for their weekly visit to the farmstand.

“It makes a big, big difference,” Bob Maclean says. “It’s not like the junk you buy in the store.”

The Macleans are regulars at the farmstand.

Whether it’s making a special trip to a local farmstand or looking for the organic label in the supermarket, more people are looking for fresh food and locally produced food.

Finding it isn’t always easy. Much of the produce in local supermarkets has been shipped across the country, sometimes even from another country. That means more people are looking to local farms for food.

“I won’t eat any imported fruit or vegetable,” said Gert Gagnon, 67, of Raymond, a regular at both Kingston and Exeter’s farmer’s markets.

Gagnon buys almost all her fruits and vegetables from local farmstands, rarely from a supermarket.

“When you go to the supermarket, you know it’s been sitting there a while,” she said. “I very seldom go into one.”

Richard Uncles, director of regulatory services for the New Hampshire Department of Agriculture, said he has seen substantial growth in the popularity of farmer’s markets over the last few years.

Local supermarkets have tried to cash in on the trend and look for local produce suppliers.

A Shaw’s Supermarkets spokesman said the company has found customers prefer locally grown produce to that trucked in from out of state.

“It’s becoming a larger and larger category,” said Mark Hardy, produce manager at Shaw’s in Derry. “And we’re trying to keep up with the demands.”

Shaw’s isn’t the only major supermarket chain thinking and acting locally. Hannaford Supermarkets has become a major supplier of locally grown and organic produce. The company’s strategy has been to identify all local growers in each store’s area and supply customers with as broad a selection as possible.

“We will go out of our way to get it locally,” said Caren Epstein, Hannaford corporate spokeswoman. “We have one of the more aggressive locally grown programs you will find.”

Hannaford looks to 24 growers in the southern part of the state alone, Epstein said, but even that’s not always enough. She said the company constantly tries to identify more local food producers to supply its stores.

Phil Fernando, owner of J&F farm in Derry, supplied Shaw’s Supermarkets with fresh produce for more than 10 years, but when the demands became too great, he had to back down.

“I could supply them with corn for 45 to 60

Know Theatre Presents: THRILL ME Cincinnati’s home for unique theatre mounts Stephen Dolginhoff’s taut, raw two-man musical, based on the Leopold and Loeb story.

Know Theatre, Cincinnati’s home for fresh, provocative entertainment is proud to add Stephen Dolginhoff’s THRILL ME to its 10th anniversary season. This regional premiere musical will show Cincinnati audiences why relationships can be murder.

The two-man musical, which premiered at New York’s Midtown International Theatre Festival in 2003, is told from the point of view of Nathan Leopold. Leopold and his childhood friend Richard Loeb were convicted of the Chicagoland murder of Bobby Franks in 1924. Franks’ murder was billed as the “Crime of the Century” and immortalized the two would-be lawyers as the “Thrill Killers.”

Though, there have been many more “crimes of the century,” the Leopold and Loeb story remains one of the most interesting stories of psychological manipulation in American history.

Dolginhoff focuses on the relationship between the two young Chicagoans, against the backdrop of the crimes they committed. The dynamics of their relationship with its twists, turns, manipulations and shifts of power takes center stage throughout the taught and unencumbered musical performance; right up to the surprise conclusion. Large cast Broadway

productions often miss the mark in creating the same dramatic tension that Dolginhoff creates with two actors on a minimalist set.

THRILL ME has been produced in cities all over the world, including Seoul, South Korea (Korean Best Musical Award nom.); Melbourne, Australia; (Green Room Award nom.), Seattle; Philadelphia; Buffalo; Chicago (Jeff Award rec.); Los Angeles; Dallas (Column Award winner); Orlando; Tampa; Boston (IRNE Award nom.); Richmond; San Francisco & Sioux City and was featured on the PBS national broadcast of the Drama Desk Awards.

This premier engagement, directed by Jason Bruffy features the acting talents of Mikhail Roberts and Steve Copps, under the musical direction of Michael Flohr. THRILL ME is an extra for the 2007/ 8 season which includes John Hartmere and Damon Intrabartolo’s pop musical, Bare, Martin McDonough’s Pillowman, Red Light Winter and the Pulitzer Prize winning Topdog/Underdog by Suzan Lori Parks.

“We’re continually searching for the freshest Off-Broadway programming for Cincinnati audiences, and nothing could be more Know Theatre then this hot seductive and unsettling musical,” says Artistic Director Jason Bruffy. “Cincinnati is one of the country’s top markets for Reality TV viewership so this is a natural fit. It’s a beautiful score woven through a seductive tale of two individuals chasing the trill of a lifetime.”

It’s not just locally grown food that supermarkets want, but organic products, too. Hardy, the Derry Shaw’s produce manager, has been with the company for 10 years. He said he has noticed a dramatic increase in the number of organic products on the supermarket’s shelves.

Nationally, the organic industry is experiencing a 20 percent growth rate in consumers a year, according to Ronni Cummins, the national director of organic consumers associations. That’s a trend he expects to continue and grow.

“People are concerned about their health,” Cummins said. “That’s a big trend across the country.”

Still, organic products make up just 3 percent of total food sales, according to a 2006 survey done by the Organic Trade Association.

One of the primary reasons for that less impressive bigger picture might be cost. Plain and simple, organic produce costs consumers more and not everyone is willing to pay the price.

“I think there will be a market for organic products if more people buy them, because then the prices should come down,” said Carol Simone, owner of Natural Marketplace in Salem. “Right now, I think people are looking for the farms. They know it’s fresh and picked that day. I’d go out of my way for that.”

The movement by consumers to farmer’s markets and farmstands is reminiscent of the past, according to Cummins of the national organic association. Back in the 1940s, most people got their food from their own farms or from local farmers.

Cummins said he thinks consumers are headed back in that direction.

“Sixty years ago, everything people bought came from a 100-mile radius,” Cummins said. “That’s probably going to happen again. People are getting back to the natural ways of food.”

Quick Facts About Thrill Me: The Story: THRILL ME explores the manipulations and power struggles between two thrill seeking Chicago law students. The Leopold and Loeb story remains one of the most intriguing tales of psychological manipulation, set against the backdrop of 1924’s “Crime of the Century.” This taut, raw musical proves that relationships can be murder!

If You Like: THRILL ME appeals to individuals who gravitate to crime dramas and film noir detective stories. One could say it’s “Chicago meets L.A. Confidential.”

Dates/Times: August 9 – August 26, 2007.

August 9 – 11, 16 – 18 & 23 – 25 @ 8 p.m.

Sunday(s) August 12, 19, 26 @ 4 p.m..

Tickets can be purchased by calling 513.621.ARTS (2787) or online at knowtheatre.com .

Tickets range from $12-$22, with student/ senior discounts available.

Missed a copy of Streetvibes? Check out the Streetvibes archive on the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless’ website at http://www.cincihomeless.org/content/streetvibes.html

STREETVIBES Page 13

Poverty Complicates Everything

by Michael Henson This is part of a continuing Streetvibes series on poverty and addiction.

Let’s start an argument. It’s an old argument, one that was settled long ago. But people argue all the time over things that were settled long ago, so we can do it too. We won’t argue long, since the thing is settled, but we can start by asking one question: Does poverty cause addiction?

You’ll say, of course not. Addiction is a disease; it said so in Time Magazine just last month. Addiction is a physical ailment that afflicts all sorts of people —perhaps even Paris Hilton— at all sorts of economic and social levels. The science proves it.

But a few years ago, it was common to blame addiction on social conditions. The social stressors of poverty, it was said, led people to seek relief in ways that were self-destructive but understandable and if only we won a war on poverty we could eliminate or reduce addiction, which we knew from the movies, was concentrated in the slums, and alcoholism, which we knew from a different set of movies, was concentrated in the same slums, but also in trailer parks and small towns, each of which had its own drunk.

The first complication with this notion was that addiction, in one form or another, kept frustrating any and all attempts to win the underfunded and half-fought war on poverty. But that’s a story we’ll save for another time.

The bigger complication with the notion was that there was never any real evidence to back it up. And there was plenty of contrary

evidence that alcohol and other drug dependence spreads up and down the socio-economic ladder.

And there was a very stubborn recovery community that insisted that this is a disease, not a political statement. Recovery belongs to therapy, not sociology.

They were right, and they won that argument hands down. Alcohol and other drug dependence is a disease. It has a specific set of symptoms; if left untreated, the results are predictable and inevitable. As with other diseases, we can trace it to certain physiological causes and there are treatment regimens which will work in most cases if applied with some discipline.

Why discipline? Because alcohol and other drug dependence is a chronic disease.

And when a disease Mike Henson is a chronic disease, you can apply pharmaceutical solutions or surgery or therapy, but little of none of it works unless there is also life-style change.

That sucks, because the person with a chronic disease may have done little more to deserve the disease than inheriting bad genes, but that person just can’t live like other people.

But we’re straying from the point of this essay, which is something about the relation

IJPC Calender of Events August 4

Over-the-Rhine Community Festival Noon - 6pm Washington Park Designed for Social Service agencies and churches to be a fun event for OTR children and families.

For info contact Cassandra Barham 513-381-4242.

August 6 Hiroshima-Nagasaki Remembrance 8pm at Friendship Park For more information call 513-579-8547 August 8 & 9 Creating Compassionate Classrooms (Nonviolent Communication) $150 Confluence Park Restaurant in Columbus For more infomration call 614-558-1141 or check the website www.nvcohio.org August 10,11 Communication That Works for Parents (Nonviolent Communication) $150 Confluence Park Restaurant in Columbus For more infomration call 614-558-1141 or check the website www.nvcohio.org August 11 Students Together Against Racism - Town Hall Think Tank 6-7:30pm Essex Place 7610 Reading Road For more information contact star@nku.edu or revol-radio@hotmail.com August 14 Ohioans to stop Execution:Cincinnati Chapter Meeting 7pm Peaslee Neighborhood Center 214 E 14th St. For more information call 513-579-8547 August 15 Before You Enlist Campaign 6-7pm Peasleee Neighborhood Center 214 E 14th St. For more information call 513-579-8547 August 15 IJPC Peace Committee Meeting 7pm Peaslee Neighborhood Center 214 E 14t St For more information call 513-579-8547 August 18-24 Holistic Directed Retreat Marydale Retreat Center This retreat provides a space to gather with women and men in a circle of faith, silence, and prayer. Come for two or more days. The retreat center is located in Northern Kentucky. For more information contact 513-751-3358 or 513-6818881 or www.centerwithin.org August 25 Day of Dialogue Faciliatator Training 9am-12:30pm Peaslee Neighborhood Center 214 E 14th St For more information contact 513-579-8547

between poverty and addiction. To do so, I wanted to kill off, quickly and decisively, the notion that poverty causes addiction. It doesn’t.

It can’t.

What poverty can do is complicate addiction.

Why wouldn’t it? Poverty complicates everything.

In particular, poverty complicates health.

But here, we’re getting ahead of ourselves again, because, before I come back and talk about how poverty complicates disease in general and addiction in particular, I want to explore this notion that poverty complicates everything.

Poverty even complicates things which ought to be simple. Take, for example, shopping.

Let’s leave aside those who shop to relax –that’s not even an option here.

We’re talking about basic, get-what-youneed-to-survive sort of shopping.

For most people in this country, shopping is a remarkably convenient experience. The world is laid out for us in every Wal-Mart and Kroger’s. We pull up in our car, glide down brightly lit aisles, pick out what we want, pay our money when we’re done, load up the car, and take it all home. Or we can do it on-line or by phone.

But in the other world of shoppers, there are many for whom shopping is an immensely complicated operation, one that involves a great deal of planning and calculation to be successful.

Let’s say a woman in Lower Price Hill, on a fixed income, gets her check and decides to shop for food. She’s not likely to have a car, so all those convenient parking lots mean nothing to her. She could roll her collapsible wheeled grocery cart down the street to the Parkview Market. The people there are friendly, but the selection is small. Not as small as you might think, for there are a lot of odds and ends packed into those two aisles. But the selection is still pretty small and the prices are higher and, besides, it’s hard to get the loaded cart over those curbs and up her steps. Stocking up on staples, flour, rice, and so on, is out of the question.

So she’ll probably go up to Kroger’s on the hill. It’s not one of those super-Kroger’s with a bank and a coffee bar, but it’ll do if she can get a way there. Maybe her sister, if she’s not working. Or she could take a bus up the hill and catch a bootleg cab back. That will cost her six or eight dollars, but her sister always wants a couple bucks for gas and she’s always in such a hurry.

So it’s probably the bus and the bootleg cab. Then, there’s the problem of how to get her groceries upstairs. The cabbie might help, but then he wants an extra tip. So she’ll probably give a dollar or two to one of the neighborhood boys.

She has the same sort of struggle if she needs to go to the pharmacy, or buy a pair of shoes, or see her ailing aunt, Anything she does is complicated by her poverty.

Because poverty complicates everything.

To be continued.

STREETVIBES Page 14 Our Selves Alone

by Wendy Nakashima

by Michael G. Sloan Frightened souls out winding wild Seattle streets Like maddened monks on our way to early Mass, The unbelieving faithful freezing in fear and beauty.

From looking at my past, you can’t get a view; thru the window that comes up in front of you... to hear my story, you wouldn’t have a clue, that one could have a past so blue...

Softly we tread lest the fury of invisible police Settle judgment upon our poverty.

Slowly we steal sidelong glances into the grey pain Of a new day’s woes. Furtive and redolent of original Sin, praying for our own invisibility and the Forgetfulness of wine. Wine, the Communion of the Damned, The forty-ounce Sacrament of Cain ... Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa.

Untouchable opulence envelopes us like mystic miasma And the iron-knuckle cop is ubiquitous reminder There is no room for Angel-sinners to drag our rags Through the halls of Xanadu.

One more day is upon us and curses and prayers Are garbled, indistinguishable in the ears of a Distant God. The tiny niche of earth fate has lent my calloused Feet seem suddenly to turn into someone else’s gold.

My lot is to somehow magically vanish like The fugitive hopes and hours of melting life.....

Amen.

To Be, to Become

Life can be a vicious circle that no one understands, the only one to break is in the one that can withstand...

Life can be a vicious circle and you’re the only one that can truly take command...

Anyone can want for you and everyone can care but; no one can direct you, cause you’re the only one that’s there....

Outrage

by Paula Nordstrom-Benaroya Come join me in my outrage in a city with a bus tunnel that belongs in the world of the rich and famous A sports stadium to be envied We have homeless people living and dying on our streets Am I the only one who is so hurt that my anger permeates my every word?

Do I alone know that beautifying our buildings while citizens are sleeping in doorways is like putting on make-up without washing your face-or putting on your suit without taking a shower?

Since a chain is only as strong as its weakest link A city is only as rich as its poorest citizens.

Couples Only

by Kris Schon

We still have people dying in our streets.

by Stan Burriss

To be, to become to believe in yourself the inner voice that propels you forward a waterfall of wisdom of life fears and rejections triumphs and tragedies laughter and hope belly button stuff the main course at life’s banquet for those wishing to attend. grateful are the many who stand firm in a brisk breeze head up, eye to eye with the dragon.

Flickering stars candles lit from your strength your courage your hope your faith, burning on.

How rich a home can our city be?

Enough time.

A sense of belonging.

Psalm of the Stranger

by Michael Henson A man at the side of the road is red with the heat and he wipes the sweat of the road from his face with a limp bandana.

He has a pack on his back the size of a small bear and I suppose he has camped the night in the willows near the river.

But now, he has stopped just short of the Interstate, burdened by the heat and by his bear of a pack and it seems he has stopped here to ponder, or pray, for he is a stranger here, perhaps a pilgrim.

Perhaps he is lost, or ahungered, or beset with the sort of grief that sets a man to seek the loneliness of roads.

Father of the stranger, Protector of the pilgrim, Lord of the outcast, Shelter of the unsheltered, Guide of the misguided, Rock of the unstable, Haven of the lost, help me in my wandering.

For where can I turn if not to you?

Whom can I call on if not for you?

What refuge do I have but for you?

What rest do I have if not in you?

This thing of coming to meals, of finding enough. A place, and enough to be left with friends behind you, and where friends should have been inside through housing that City forgets to share, while you make a place.

Then, you share it.

Given enough time, you share it.

The Golf Game

by Cleo Wombles There was Moses, Jesus and an old man playing golf. Moses knocked the golf ball a hundred feet in the air but it missed the hole. Jesus said, “Good job Moses but not good enough.”

Jesus knocks the golf ball 10,000 feet in the air and it falls straight in the hole. The old man knocked the golf ball into a tree. A squirrel spots the ball and takes off running.

An eagles sports the squirrel and picks it up and starts flying with it. A lightning bolt hits the eagle.

The eagles drops the squirrel. The squirrel drops the ball and it falls into the hole. Jesus says, “Good job Dad.”

STREETVIBES Page 15 All Is A Circle Within Me

Impure

by Nancy Wood

by Galaxie

All is a circle within me.

I am ten thousand winters old.

I am as young as a new-born flower.

I am a buffalo in its grave.

I am a tree in bloom.

Succumbing to the rape again There lies harm in your eyes You need me in order to escape Brutally, you take what you think is yours

All is a circle within me.

I have seen the world through an eagle’s eyes.

I have seen it through a gopher’s hole.

I have seen the world on fire and the sky without a moon.

Leaves scatter and dance Birds sing and play Children laugh and run As I cry and struggle

All is a circle within me.

I have gone into the world and out again.

I have gone to the edge of the sky.

Now all is at peace within me.

Now all has a place to come home.

There are blind shadows That I throw myself into Whenever I must escape The disguise of everything ugly

I Shall Die

by Elizabeth Romero

Reclamation

by Wes Browning Denied a face she hides beneath an ocean of uncried tears Cry the tears : now the ocean dries.

A plain appears : Eden, in dying pains.

Then sings a soft thunder yet living: It tells, “All time begins within.”

“All worlds begin within.”

Here IS the blood of the suffering of all Mankind.

A coiling stream about the tree stains the soil.

And though long dead the tree so fed shows: a light, a star, a fruit of her first-born.

No faceless serpent, now she returns.

Here SHE comes to dance if allowed to be.

Just cry the tears and the ocean dries.

So souls will drown the Lord of Lies.

And joy will dance as jealousy dies.

Timeline

by Wendy Nakashima The Sun rises to touch the mountain peaks it touches the dew an turns it to a simple rainbow. It warms the sand that touches the toes. And as it sets it winks on the great day it created.

The woman coming toward you is trying to hang on.

You can see it in her eyes, her wary sidelong glance.

The woman coming toward you is trying to hang on.

Her clothes flap loosely in the wind.

Her red shoes clash.

The woman coming toward you carries the patient rage of her mother and her mother before that like that cracked plastic handbag.

by Cleo Wombles Some do Some don’t Some will Some won’t Some like it cold Some like it hot Somebody is always wanting Something they won’t get.

Jimmy’s Motorcycle Adventures

Writers!

Submit your Poetry to Streetvibes email your writing to Streetvibes@juno.com

Circle of Friends

by Galaxie Somewhere I am afraid The fear makes me exist The existence reviles me Hunger, pain, love My explanations will only frighten you We peddle moral hypocrisy Excused by our beliefs, we are blind Perfection is not easily attained My secret slivers and pieces Make me what I am Standing in the center I imagine myself running Circle of friends Reality kicks in The existence ends It was all a dream.

by Michael G. Sloan The hollow streets shake like fear and echo with a granite noise.

Buildings rumble back in anger; They, lead grey legs for a cobalt sky.

Somewhere amid the million inhuman squeals, a new-born question screams its way into the world.

Happy Birthday.

Here on those boney rocks by the sea.

Happy Birthday.

You, born blind and infected, hungry for a gun.

Sometimes in a welter of seasons, when the sickness in your soul is full blossom, you will lay your hand to the task of manhood, While all of heaven groans.

Haiku

by Reneene Robertson Are you threatened by the thoughts of others?

Arm yourself Think your own thoughts

HOGS are going to the Dogs Thanks “Sparky” photo submitted by owner, Linda Pittman

Happy Birthday. You, unloved, uncertain and benumbed.

Happy Birthday, Scion of the City You will visit your curse upon the hour when it comes.

For now, hear the menace in the music. The dance has just begun. Happy Birthday.